Altmetrics or alternative metrics measure online social engagement with research outputs. They differ from the traditional metrics which are citation counts, impact factor and h-indices. The term altmetric was proposed in 2010 in the article "Altmetrics: a manifesto".
Altmetrics can be applied to all fields of research. They are not reliant on the citation frequency in a field, and you do not have to wait as long for the work to mature (as with published citations) before seeing the impact.
What Are Altmetrics? is a website where you can learn more.
