Measuring researchers’ online visibility

While citation analysis and bibliometrics can only reflect one aspect of the influence science can have on the society, the interest towards understanding and identifying the wider societal impact or influence that science can have on various audiences is increasing. Altmetrics has some potential to answer this demand and to reflect different types of impact and to map the networks in which researchers are engaging with the public. But altmetrics are not without problems and more research is needed before altmetrics can be used for research evaluation. This keynote talk gives a brief overview of the evolution of bibliometrics and how citations became proxies for scientific quality and merit, followed by a discussion of the possibilities and challenges with altmetrics