PlumX

PlumX
Name	PlumX
Type	Product
Industry	Altmetrics / Bibliometrics
Founded	2012
Owner	Plum Analytics (acquired 2017)
Headquarters	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

PlumX PlumX is an altmetrics aggregation product designed to track the attention and impact of scholarly outputs across online platforms. It provides metrics drawn from citations, social media, usage, captures, and mentions to complement traditional indices like Web of Science, Scopus, and CrossRef. The product is used by academic libraries, publishers, research offices, and funders such as ProQuest, Elsevier, ORCID, Digital Science, and Clarivate Analytics-adjacent services.

Overview

PlumX presents article-level and author-level indicators that map to outputs cataloged by identifiers such as Digital Object Identifier, PubMed, arXiv, and SSRN. Institutions connect PlumX to repositories like DSpace, Fedora Commons, and Figshare to surface metrics for monographs, datasets, preprints, conference proceedings, and software. The dashboard aims to inform stakeholders including administrators at Johns Hopkins University, librarians at The British Library, and program officers at agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

Metrics and Data Sources

PlumX groups indicators into categories often referenced alongside traditional sources like Google Scholar and Microsoft Academic. Common data providers integrated into PlumX include Twitter, Facebook, Mendeley, GitHub, YouTube, and publisher platforms like Springer Nature and Wiley. Bibliographic and citation inputs come from services such as CrossRef, PubMed Central, and institutional repositories hosted by organizations like Harvard University and University of California. PlumX also ingests measures from policy and practice outlets including World Health Organization reports, clinical trial registries like ClinicalTrials.gov, and patent offices such as the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Platform Features and Functionality

The platform offers dashboards, exportable reports, and visualization tools comparable to features in Altmetric, Dimensions (database), and SciVal. Users can filter metrics by output type, affiliation, or identifier and generate reports for grant proposals submitted to funders like the European Research Council or evaluation panels at Research England. Integration points include single sign-on with identity providers like ORCID and federated access via Shibboleth. PlumX supports library assessment workflows used by consortia such as the Association of Research Libraries and management offices at institutions like Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Integration and Adoption

Adoption has spanned commercial publishers including Elsevier, academic presses such as Oxford University Press, and repository platforms like Zenodo. Research offices at universities like University of Oxford and University of Toronto use PlumX outputs alongside metrics from Times Higher Education and QS World University Rankings for benchmarking. The product is embedded in metadata pipelines that rely on standards from organizations such as COUNTER and Project COUNTER and links to identifier ecosystems managed by Crossref and DataCite.

Criticisms and Limitations

Critiques of the product echo broader debates in altmetrics literature alongside analyses from scholars at institutions like University College London and London School of Economics. Concerns include platform-dependency noted in discussions involving Scholarly Kitchen, potential gaming akin to issues debated around ResearchGate and Academia.edu, and representativeness problems highlighted by researchers affiliated with MIT and Stanford University. Comparisons with citation indices such as Web of Science and Scopus point to differences in coverage, normalization challenges discussed at conferences like the International Conference on Scientometrics and Informetrics, and transparency questions raised in forums hosted by SPARC and COAR.

History and Ownership

PlumX was developed by Plum Analytics, founded in 2012, and later acquired by EBSCO Information Services before becoming part of ProQuest following corporate transactions involving vendors such as Clarivate. The product’s evolution has been shaped by changes in scholarly communication phenomena noted during events like the rise of bioRxiv and the expansion of funder mandates from bodies like the Wellcome Trust. Strategic partnerships and acquisitions connected PlumX to broader discovery and analytics ecosystems involving ProQuest, library service providers, and publisher platforms such as Taylor & Francis.

Category:Altmetrics Category:Bibliometrics Category:Research tools