Altmetrics (conference)

Altmetrics (conference)
Name	Altmetrics (conference)
Status	Active
Genre	Academic conference
Frequency	Annual
Location	Various
First	2012
Organizer	Diverse

Altmetrics (conference) is an annual scholarly meeting focused on alternative metrics for research assessment, digital scholarship, and scholarly communication. The conference convenes researchers, librarians, publishers, funders, and technologists to discuss metrics drawn from online platforms, social media, and digital repositories. It intersects with debates in bibliometrics, scientometrics, research policy, and information science.

History

The conference emerged from discussions among contributors to PLOS platforms, advocates associated with ImpactStory, and researchers linked to University of Oxford, University of Amsterdam, and University of Montreal in the early 2010s. Initial gatherings built on precedents set by meetings at iConference venues, collaborations with Association for Information Science and Technology, and workshops hosted at SPARC events. Growth was shaped by participation from stakeholders affiliated with Wiley-Blackwell, Elsevier, Springer Nature, CrossRef, and ORCID as well as funders such as the Wellcome Trust and the National Institutes of Health.

Conference Scope and Themes

The programme typically covers topics including online attention indicators, scholarly communication platforms like ResearchGate, Mendeley, Zenodo, and measurement frameworks used by organizations such as SCImago and Clarivate. Sessions explore integration with repositories including PubMed Central, arXiv, SSRN, and policy implications for agencies such as the National Science Foundation, European Commission, and Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Themes often reference standards and initiatives run by DOAJ, DataCite, RIKEN, and Jisc.

Organizers and Sponsorship

Organizers have included academic departments at institutions like University College London, University of California, Berkeley, University of Sussex, University of Melbourne, and TU Delft alongside non-profit organizations such as CrossRef, Creative Commons, OpenAIRE, and SPARC Europe. Sponsors have ranged from commercial publishers including Taylor & Francis, John Wiley & Sons, SAGE Publications, and Macmillan Publishers to funding bodies such as the Wellcome Trust, European Research Council, and corporate technology partners like Google and Altmetric LLP.

Notable Meetings and Keynotes

Keynote speakers have been drawn from notable figures affiliated with PLOS, Nature Research, Science (journal), The Lancet, and university leaders from Harvard University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, and University of Cambridge. Sessions have featured presentations related to projects at Microsoft Research, IBM Research, Elsevier Labs, and initiatives by National Library of Medicine and British Library staff. Panels have included contributors from Research Councils UK, Wellcome Trust, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Open Knowledge Foundation, and Internet Archive.

Impact and Reception

The conference influenced debates within communities connected to bibliometrics, altmetrics practitioners, and organizations like Committee on Publication Ethics and Council of Science Editors. Outcomes have informed policy discussions hosted by European University Association, OECD, and national agencies including Department of Education (United States), Ministry of Education (Japan), and Australian Research Council. Academic reception has appeared in outlets such as Nature, Science Advances, PLOS ONE, Journal of Informetrics, and Scientometrics.

Conference Format and Activities

Typical formats include poster sessions, lightning talks, workshops co-organized with DataONE, hackathons partnered with GitHub, tutorials led by teams from Digital Science, and demo sessions involving platforms like Figshare and Altmetric LLP. Pre-conference training has been run in collaboration with libraries at Yale University, University of Toronto, McGill University, and Princeton University. Social events and unconference tracks have featured contributors from Mozilla, Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Creative Commons communities.

Participation and Submission Process

Call for papers and abstract submission systems have used services connected to EasyChair, ConfTool, and institutional repositories at DANS, HAL (open archive), and KNAW. Peer review processes have drawn reviewers associated with Association for Computing Machinery, IEEE, Royal Society, and editorial boards of journals including Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology and Information Processing & Management. Participation includes attendees from universities such as University of Chicago, University of Edinburgh, National University of Singapore, and research institutes like Max Planck Society and CNRS.

Category:Academic conferences