The role of article level metrics in scientific publishing

Abstract

Emerging metrics based on article-level does not exclude traditional metrics based on citations to the journal, but complements them. Article-level metrics (ALMs) provide a wide range of metrics about the uptake of an individual journal article by the scientific community after publication. They include citations, statistics of usage, discussions in online comments and social media, social bookmarking, and recommendations. In this editorial, the role of article level metrics in publishing scientific papers has been described. Article-Level Metrics (ALMs) are rapidly emerging as important tools to quantify how individual articles are being discussed, shared, and used. Data sources depend on the tool, but they include classic metrics indicators depending on citations, academic social networks (Mendeley, CiteULike, Delicious) and social media (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and Youtube). The most popular tools used to apply this new metrics are: Public Library of Science - Article-Level Metrics, Altmetric, Impactstory and Plum Analytics. Journal Impact Factor (JIF) does not consider impact or influence beyond citations count as this count reflected only through Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science® database. JIF provides indicator related to the journal, but not related to a published paper. Thus, altmetrics now becomes an alternative metrics for performance assessment of individual scientists and their contributed scholarly publications. Macedonian scholarly publishers have to work on implementing of article level metrics in their e-journals. It is the way to increase their visibility and impact in the world of science.