Alternative Metrics

Searching Altmetric Explorer

The Altmetric Explorer has a powerful search interface, with the option to choose between a quick search and an advanced search. 

Quick search

• When you login, you'll see "Quick Search" at the top right hand side of the page. 
• Here you can enter a simple search term (such as a keyword, author name, department name, publication title, journal name, research output type, etc.) and dive into your Altmetric Explorer data right away.

Advanced search

• Alternatively, you can choose "Edit Search" to open an advanced search menu with many other ways to refine your search queries and drill down into the most relevant research output results. 
• You can enter multiple filters at a time or choose between various search options. 

As an Altmetric Explorer for Institutions user, you can also select whether or not to search within your own institution's verified research outputs, or expand your search to the full Altmetric Explorer database. You can read more about this functionality here.

Save searches, create alerts & share reports 

Save searches in Altmetric Explorer to create alerts and shareable reports. These features will save you time by alerting you to the attention that is most meaningful to you, bringing recent and relevant attention to the forefront. 

Saving searches

• With the click of a button, you can easily save any search you run in Altmetric Explorer. Consider limiting your search to a particular journal, department at your institution, or even by publication date.
• In the upper right corner of any tab in the database, you’ll see a blue ‘save search’ button. You can click this button at any time to save your search.
• To view your saved searches, click the icon with 3 lines on the toolbar on the left side of your screen.

Creating email alerts

• Once you’ve opened up your saved searches, you can create alerts and reports. Email alerts provide you with regularly scheduled updates for any search you create. The daily, weekly, and/or monthly updates arrive in your inbox and include links back to the mentions in Altmetric Explorer, allowing you to easily dig deeper into the attention.
• These email alerts are convenient to view and quickly summarize outputs receiving the most attention recently. Click on the paper airplane icon to send yourself an example of what this report will look like. 

Creating sharable reports

• Create an easily shareable report for any saved search to highlight data of most value to your organization. Reports can be shared as a live-updating URL or a PDF. Create a report by clicking on the blue document icon on a saved search.
• Then click the blue ‘edit report’ button to edit sections and to make the report shareable. Consider sending the URL to colleagues, co-authors, or other stakeholders. You can share the URL with anyone–they do not have to have an Altmetric Explorer account to view the report. 

Create alerts for a single output

• If you’d like to set up an email alert for a single output, i.e. you’d like Altmetric Explorer to email you whenever somebody mentions that output online, you can set up an individual alert for that output.
• This can be done on an output’s Altmetric Explorer details page. Click on any donut badge in the database to view the details page. On the right side, you’ll see a button labeled ‘alert me about new mentions.’ Simply click on this button and enter your email address to receive alerts. 

To view a step-by-step walkthrough of these features, watch this video or view this guide.