The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) announces the
publication of a special themed issue of Information Standards Quarterly
(ISQ) on the topic of Altmetrics. Since Eugene Garfield's pioneering work in
the 1960s, assessment of published research has been through citation
reference counts and the Journal Impact Factor. A new field of alternative
metrics-often called altmetrics for short-has recently emerged to provide
methods of measurement that better reflect online reader behavior, network
interactions with content, and social media. ISQ Guest Content Editor,
Martin Fenner, Technical Lead Article-Level Metrics for the Public Library
of Science (PLOS) and Project Manager for the ORCID DataCite
Interoperability Network (ODIN), has assembled a set of articles that go
beyond the basics of what altmetrics are to look at emerging best practices
and challenges presented by this burgeoning field. "Altmetrics have grown
up," states Fenner, "and the articles in this issue of ISQ reflect this
shift in the discussion."

The feature article, Consuming Article-Level Metrics, by Scott Chamberlain
(Simon Fraser University) discusses the issues encountered when using
scripting interfaces to obtain data from the four largest article-level
metrics providers: PLOS, ImpactStory, Altmetric, and Plum Analytics.
Commonalities and differences in consistency, provenance, and context are
illustrated and metrics users are cautioned about combining data across
providers.

While much of the focus to date has been on the use of altmetrics by and for
individual researchers, Robin Chin Roemer (University of Washington
Libraries) and Rachel Borchardt (American University) in the second feature
discuss Institutional Altmetrics and Academic Libraries, specifically how
altmetrics has begun to address the needs of institutions and the key roles
that librarians can play as partners, liaisons, and advocates in such
endeavors.

Three "in practice" articles provide case studies for the way altmetrics are
being used today. Jennifer Lin and Martin Fenner describe how altmetrics can
be classified into different categories and how PLOS developed a new
ontology to make sense of it all. Mike Taylor (Elsevier) discusses how
altmetrics can expand our vision of scholarly communication and social
impact, well beyond what bibliometrics and citation has done. William Gunn
explores how the addition of papers to the Mendeley academic social network
can provide a different view of research impact both within and beyond a
particular discipline.

All of the authors describe issues and challenges in this evolving field
that lend support for the new project, described in the NISO Reports
article-and supported with a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation-to
study, propose, and then develop community-based standards and recommended
practices in the field of alternative metrics.

"For altmetrics to move out of its current pilot and proof-of-concept phase,
the community must begin coalescing around a suite of commonly understood
definitions, calculations, and data sharing practices," states Todd
Carpenter, NISO Executive Director. "This special issue of ISQ sets the
stage for understanding and identifying key altmetrics issues that can best
be addressed through standards or recommended practices."

ISQ is available in open access in electronic format on the NISO website.
Both the entire Summer 2013 Altmetrics issue and the individual articles may
be freely downloaded. Print copies are available by subscription and as
print on demand. For more information and to access the free electronic
version, visit: www.niso.org/publications/isq
<http://www.niso.org/news/pr/view/www.niso.org/publications/isq> .

 

Cynthia Hodgson

ISQ Managing Editor

National Information Standards Organization

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301-654-2512

 

 


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