Across the scholarly community, there are growing debates of how to best quantify scholarly impact. Many are concerned with the overreliance on traditional citation-based metrics such as Journal Impact Factors (JIFs).

For many of these critics, altmetrics represent a welcome shift towards a form of research assessment which champions an article-level focus and acknowledgment of broader societal reach.

Altmetrics serve not only as a measurement tool but also a means to satisfy the broader ethos of open science. They elucidate the societal reach of research, an important consideration for funders and institutions that mandate Open Access.

Here, we outline what altmetrics are, how they work, and their role in understanding how research is shared online.

What are Altmetrics?

The term ‘altmetrics’ was introduced to the scholarly vocabulary in 2010, representing a move “to broaden and deepen our understanding of the value of research and its influence on people and communities”. Aptly suggested by its name, altmetrics take an alternative approach to evaluating the impact and dissemination of research.

Altmetrics are distinct from traditional metrics such as Impact Factor, CiteScore, and Scimago Journal Rank, which create an estimation of scholarly impact that is based on citations alone.

Instead, altmetrics leverage real-time, online engagement to highlight how research circulates and is understood across digital environments.

Altmetrics operate at an article level, providing a comprehensive account of attention gained across social media platforms, policy documents, downloads, news and blogs, as well as saves in reference managers such as Mendeley.

How do altmetrics work?

Tracking the dissemination of research relies on unique identifiers such as ISBNs, DOIs, PubMed IDs, and handle IDs. These identifiers allow research to be followed as it travels across multiple platforms, detailing how many times it has been shared and where.

There are multiple providers of altmetrics. These include Altmetric.com, PlumX, Impactstory, and Crossref Event Data.

These data are transformed into a numerical value, which in the case of Altmetric.com is known as its Altmetric Attention Score. This score is visualized through a colourful altmetric badge which signifies both the volume and variety of attention received.

Badges that feature an abundance of colours denote that the research has been widely featured across various platforms. In the case of the example above, taken from a study published in Geomatics, we can see that attention of this research is both frequent and diverse.

Altmetric.com continues to update their services and is currently testing a sentiment analysis feature which highlights the tone in which online audiences respond to the research.

Due to altmetric’s focus on online dissemination, its utility is empowered by research being freely accessible. This intertwines with many of the core principles of Open Access publishing.

Open Access makes scholarly research immediately available to readers at no cost and is often free to reuse for scholarly purposes. For research published under the Open Access model, increased accessibility often translates into higher online attention and, subsequently, stronger altmetric scores.

A companion or competitor of citation-based metrics?

Altmetrics should not be seen as a replacement of traditional scholarly metrics since the ways in which they evaluate research are intrinsically different.

Citation-based metrics acknowledge that research has been referenced within another paper, which does not necessarily equal quality nor does it reflect the diverse ways in which research impacts the world.

Furthermore, much of the dissatisfaction surrounding citation-based metrics ties into its impact on funding decisions and their influence on where scholars may aspire to publish their work. This presents a key issue for many scholars as the allocation of funding grants are often based on where research will be published, rather than its individual scientific merit.

In light of such criticism, various initiatives have emerged, eager to challenge the overreliance on traditional scholarly metrics.

Both the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and more recently the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) signify industry-wide calls to improve the way researchers and their outputs are evaluated. These initiatives argue against the promotion of journal-level metrics, such as JIFs, instead arguing for more inclusive and diverse research assessment where metrics are used cautiously and with appropriate consideration.

Learn more about the limitations of citation-based journal metrics.

Benefits of altmetrics

Altmetrics compliment traditional metrics by excelling in many of the ways that citation-based measurements are arguably limited. They provide immediate, article-level signals of attention and capture wider societal resonance.

For authors, publishers, and funding bodies, altmetrics provide clear benefits:

• Altmetrics are updated almost instantaneously. This means that authors can follow discussions around their research as it is accumulating.
• Unlike traditional metrics, altmetrics leverage article-level insights rather than journal-based averages.
• Altmetrics capture references across sources such as policy documents and news platforms. This provides effective insights to understanding how the impact of an author’s work transcends the scholarly community and drives real-world change.

Capturing attention, not quality

Altmetrics are effective at showing the attention research has gained online.

However, it is important to consider their own limitations. A high Altmetric Attention Score simply indicates discussion and dissemination. It suggests little to nothing about scientific quality or its methodological rigor. Importantly, altmetric scores must be put into context. Altmetric.com provides guidance on how best to contextualise an Altmetric Attention Score.

Altmetrics are not substitutes for citation analysis and are certainly not direct measures of quality. Although, when used alongside other existing indicators, they strengthen our understanding of how research is shared online.

MDPI’s commitment to open research assessment

As a pioneer in Open Access scholarly publishing, MDPI continues to ensure all research published within its journals is freely available to the wider scholarly community.

In its commitment to ensuring that its authors, readers, and institutions can observe how their research circulates across public domains, all research published in MDPI journals features an Altmetric Attention Score. This can be found in the top right-hand corner of the article page.

As of February 2026, Altmetric.com has tracked 857,520 research outputs from MDPI, resulting in more than 5 million mentions. This includes more than 217,336 mentions in policy, patents and guidelines and 467,119 mentions across news, blogs and podcasts. These figures highlight the scale at which Open Access research engages diverse audiences when it is freely available, and its dissemination is easily traceable.

Open Access ensures the accessibility of research, bolstering its visibility and in turn supporting more transparent and informed research assessment. MDPI is also a proud signatory of DORA, affirming its advocacy of responsible research assessment and a measured and broad understanding of the meaning of impact.

Embracing inclusive research assessment

Altmetrics continue to be central to industry-wide discussions of how research impact should be defined and assessed.

Researchers are continuing to diversify their activities, particularly within a research environment where Open Access is being mandated across the globe. Despite such Open Access and open science initiatives, evidence of broader engagement is currently not included in traditional research assessments. This had lead many scholars to argue that traditional metrics should be expanded or complemented with other new alternative measures.

Nonetheless, citations remain an integral aspect of reflecting scholarly recognition but provide a limited view of overall research influence.

By highlighting engagement outside of scholarly forums, altmetrics can complement traditional citation-based metrics and support a form of research assessment which aligns with the Open Access principles of shareability, visibility, and transparency.

We’re dedicated to giving you all the information you need to understand Open Access. Our article All You Need to Know About Open Access covers a range of topics.