Altmetrics measure the impact that your research has online and is a non-traditional way of tracking that is different than citation impact metrics. A benefit of altmetrics is that they can accrue faster than traditional metrics (citations), because they do not depend on the process of 
conventional scholarly communication. Some examples of altmetrics include mentions on Twitter, news releases, blogs, citations in policy documents, number of downloads, and more. As altmetrics are becoming more popular than ever in evaluating research, you can include them in your researcher profile. Today we are going to be looking at the specific company Altmetric (owned by Digital Science) that provides altmetrics data. Another platform for altmetrics is PlumX (owned by Elsevier)
Altmetrics helps researchers to see their impact in real-time online, as well as reflecting different forms of engagement with publications such as mentions on social media. They also help to predict the amount of interest
and impact that your citations will have in the future.
Sharing your research on your social media platforms (such as Twitter and LinkedIn) will help to increase the engagement on your Altmetrics. To have your publications reach different audiences, you can create different blog posts, videos, or infographic that summarize your research. You can also reach out to policymakers or advocacy groups who might want to use your research to guide decisions.
Altmetrics can help to showcase the impact your work that can be used for grant applications. They can also help you discover collaborators by identifying the researchers who might be discussing or citing your work online. You can also gather an understanding of how your research is being discussed by the public outside of academia.
Go to the U of A Bookmarklet page and follow the instructions to install the Bookmarklet tool.
If you don't want to install the Bookmarklet plugin, check out these articles from the New England Journal of Medicine for their Altmetrics. Click on the Metrics and Citations Arrow on the right hand side.
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