Greg Tananbaum’s SPARC Primer gives an excellent overview of Article-Level Metrics and places them firmly in the broader bibliometrics landscape. One of the real strengths of this piece is the way it draws together traditional metrics (terms like citation, impact factor or h-index) and altmetrics – at journal, personal and article level. Rather than presenting emerging data streams like views, downloads and social media/news mentions as alternatives ways to show impact, they are seen as part of a toolkit to paint a more fulsome picture. Article-Level Metrics are also distinguished from journal and individual career metrics in terms of granularity and immediacy. See the quick demo from our recent Liaison Services meeting below.

Tananbaum articulates and differentiates the value of scholarly visibility and social visibility. An article might have been cited in a reputable journal but has it also been bookmarked by scholars in CiteULike or Mendeley? Has it been discussed on Twitter or mentioned in the news? How many times has it been viewed or downloaded? Aggregating this data helps to tell a much richer story about the impact of an article, both in the short term and its ongoing contribution – not just to its own field but to a much broader audience.

To see what Article-Level Metrics might look like, check out examples like Public Library of Science (look for the Metrics tab) and Nature Publishing Group (look for the Metrics button on recent articles).  Try the Altmetric free bookmarklet and watch out for Article-Level Metrics on other publisher sites… maybe even on Research Online in the future.

Article-Level Metrics for an article in Nature. Traditional citations are combined with newer data sources at the article level.

The use of these data streams has great potential for grant and promotion applications, and may assist researchers in fields such as arts and humanities, where it has been difficult to demonstrate impact with traditional citation tools. This primer is a valuable reference point for librarians supporting academics, helping them to demonstrate their impact and find new ways to promote their research.