**5.1. Science evaluation, performance assessment, and measurement of social impact**

Due to the explorative development stage of altmetrics (as described above), they must be used carefully with regard to their application in the performance assessment of institutions and single scientists, for example within the scope of scientific evaluation. In particular, there is a lack of studies investigating how valid and reliable the evaluation of science based on altmetrics is. In the scientific discourse, a deeper understanding of the heterogeneity and the significance of the data must be achieved. In addition, useful indicators must be developed and benchmarking studies have to be conducted. According to current opinion, altmetrics will in the near future be more of a complementary component rather than an independent indicator for the assessment of scientific performance.

In addition, some research topics are more in the focus of society than others without necessarily displaying a larger social impact. In this context, attention should be drawn to the news values theory: it describes factors why some topics are reasonably sure to be reported and some are unlikely to become objects of journalistic reports in mass media [25]. Against this backdrop, altmetrics can be viewed as an incomplete indicator for social visibility. To what extent this circumstance will change over time cannot currently be predicted and depends more on the social discourse on science and the opening of the science system than on further methodological developments.

### **5.2. Public relations, visibility, and advertising of activities**

should be to complement each other in an advantageous manner. Peer review and expert assessment—this is the ambition—could be reinforced by the appropriate use of quantitative metrics, and further aspects beyond the traditional science system could be illuminated:

Another aspect is the openness and transparency of all steps in the analysis process: "keep data collection and analytical processes open, transparent and simple" [14], that is, analyses should be verifiable and the indicators should not be unnecessarily complicated. At the same time, this does not mean that simple indicators (e.g., pure absolute numbers) with no signifi-

This recommendation is particularly important against the backdrop of the altmetric attention score since this composite indicator always combines data from many different sources. Their individual significance is unknown so that the score value can only contribute rudimentary information on the visibility of a publication in social media and therefore not be used for evaluation. At this point, attention should also be drawn to the inappropriate use of the journal impact factor, which occurs in a cumulative form particularly in medical science: its incorrect use as a citation indicator instead of as a simple journal indicator shows that it is immensely difficult to eliminate a metric once it has been established. Metrics in the scientific

To what extent altmetrics will establish themselves in research policy depends fundamentally on empirical values from practical application in the sense of a learning experimental system. Therefore, potential fields of application are briefly outlined in the following paragraphs.

Due to the explorative development stage of altmetrics (as described above), they must be used carefully with regard to their application in the performance assessment of institutions and single scientists, for example within the scope of scientific evaluation. In particular, there is a lack of studies investigating how valid and reliable the evaluation of science based on altmetrics is. In the scientific discourse, a deeper understanding of the heterogeneity and the significance of the data must be achieved. In addition, useful indicators must be developed and benchmarking studies have to be conducted. According to current opinion, altmetrics will in the near future be more of a complementary component rather than an independent

In addition, some research topics are more in the focus of society than others without necessarily displaying a larger social impact. In this context, attention should be drawn to the news values theory: it describes factors why some topics are reasonably sure to be reported and some are unlikely to become objects of journalistic reports in mass media [25]. Against this backdrop, altmetrics can be viewed as an incomplete indicator for social visibility. To what

**5.1. Science evaluation, performance assessment, and measurement of social impact**

"quantitative evaluation should support qualitative, expert assessment" [14].

**5. Future potential of altmetrics in various fields of application**

cance should be used instead.

128 Scientometrics

context must be reliable, reproducible, and significant.

indicator for the assessment of scientific performance.

A part of communication on science and its visibility in the public sphere is represented by altmetrics. In any case, it should be noted that there is a rising trend in social media activity measured by the frequency of contributions and the number of people involved. Thus, it is becoming increasingly important to use social media platforms in order to proactively draw attention to research, that is, advertise it.

As an example in this context, institutional efforts such as those undertaken by universities or the European Commission, can be observed, which strategically position their own publications and activities. Against the backdrop of the explorative state of these efforts, altmetrics could serve as feedback, for example, to test various approaches aimed at new target groups in society. With regard to research policy, particularly activities with a strong social relevance and their visibility could represent an interesting field of application complementing current evaluation approaches for analyzing media feedback. Initial network analyses are already delivering promising results and their application to research policy issues could be examined. Using specific issues associated with communication propagation, attention could be focused, for example, on the identification of relevant multipliers—for example, science journalists and representatives from politics, industry, and interest groups—in the dissemination of information. Identifying such mechanisms and transmission channels in pilot studies would be promising research priorities in this respect in addition to medial feedback already addressed through established investigation designs.

Publishers already use the altmetric score mentioned in Section 3 as feedback on articles, albeit in a strongly aggregated and simplified form. Similar efforts are also apparent at universities and research institutions, which are testing the implementation of the Altmetric Donut both with and without the score, although the added value of these efforts has yet to be clarified. As part of a pilot measure, the OECD is currently investigating to what extent the altmetric explorer and the implementation of the altmetric score are suited to determine the social range of policy documents.

Science institutions can also use altmetrics within the scope of science marketing: it is conceivable that altmetrics could be used to focus attention on those publications by an institution that is widely discussed, shared, tweeted, or used in news pieces. This would permit the interface between science and society to be better addressed.

Whether there is any benefit from altmetrics in economics or politics beyond science has not yet been verified. From our viewpoint, there would be benefits if more sources of economic or policy-relevant sources were covered by the altmetrics databases. In this case, it would be possible to regard or measure the contribution of science in economy or policy. With bibliometric instruments, such as publication or citation analyses, it is not possible to measure this contribution since the economic or political world does not publish articles in scientific outlets. With altmetrics one would be able to have a look at, for example, mentions of scientific publications in documents, which influence politics or discussions on the application of scientific research in economics or companies. Generally, it would be worthwhile to identify the impact of scientific contributions on individual groups more easily, if one could associate contributions on social media platforms to particular fields of application.

We show that there are still problems with the indicators and associated benchmarks. This is why the use of altmetrics in the context of science evaluations is not yet conceivable. Simultaneously, however, this insight could function as an incentive to enhance application maturity and to create the political boundary conditions for advancing further developments. Thanks to initial applications of altmetrics in the academic context, important experience is being gained. The scientific debate over the past few years has thus led to altmetrics achieving the validity and application maturity required for initial applications. However, they must be further developed for applications that are more thorough; particular indicators have to go beyond the level of individual publications and should also aggregate data on various levels. Additionally, the problems of altmetric indicators have to be addressed especially regarding

Altmetrics: State of the Art and a Look into the Future http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76874 131

Interviews of the bibliometrics team at Forschungszentrum Jülich with experts in the field of bibliometrics and altmetrics confirm the above-mentioned findings [7]. These experts gave statements about the meaningfulness and application maturity of altmetrics. They stated that the significance of altmetrics indicators is located at a low to medium range only. The initial euphoria in the field, with the focus on the far-reaching potentials up to the measurement of

There was a consensus between the experts that altmetrics is not an alternative to bibliometrics, but a new perspective on communication from and about science in social media: Perception and "popularity" are in the foreground. However, scientific quality or excellence is marginally represented by altmetrics, since it correlates only partially positively with perception. In principle, this contradicts bibliometrics, which is based on an inherent and peer

In contrast to the meaningfulness, the experts' assessments differ more strongly with regard to the maturity for application of altmetrics. This is sometimes due to the fact that expectations diverge: should these metrics be a purely quantitative indicator or do they provide the starting point for qualitative analyses? Furthermore, the areas of application are very broad and also include marketing activities that have so far been of secondary importance for research policy. Against this background, there is still unanimity that altmetrics can currently not be interpreted as a standalone and quantitative indicator. In particular, it was unanimously emphasized that altmetrics does not conform to a scientific database that is a prerequisite for

The appreciation of what role policymakers should play and how altmetrics can be used for research policy are divergent. However, in most of the interviews, the experts think that politicians should play an active role in shaping the implementation of altmetrics. Politicians could create a superordinate and binding framework for the application of altmetrics, for

In the long term, the increasing involvement of science in social media platforms will have a positive effect on the application of altmetrics. In addition, data providers are designing sources systematically and increasingly semantically. Current developments appear promising and point toward an expansion of source selection for English-language

instance, by anchoring demands and formulating research questions.

the social impact and the performance evaluation of science, seems to have subsided.

coverage, representativeness, gaming, and validity.

review-based approach for the evaluation of science.

the assessment of scientific work.

### **5.3. Reporting reputation**

For scientists, the visibility of their publications is essential. The reputation resulting from the use by others of their scientific output in the form of ideas, statements, calculations, and findings is an essential part of the science system. Only the use of the generated output creates sustainable value for an individual scientist, be it in other scientific publications or in web-based communication, social media, or news pieces. Bibliometrics and altmetrics help scientists document the visibility of their work. Thus, the majority of the almost 700 scientists who participated in a survey on the RG platform stated that it is important to them to have a high RG score.

Altmetrics permit scientists to record, regulate, and document their own visibility to a greater extent than was previously possible. Particularly for early-career scientists, there is thus a great opportunity to increase attention and reputation independently from the traditional publication system. In the longer term, altmetrics could assume the function of documenting the mediation of science to society and of making it more transparent.
