Understanding the value of social media metrics for research evaluation

The availability of indicators based on social media has opened the possibility to track the online interactions between social media users and scholarly entities. Indicators derived from these online interactions reflect aspects such as how often, by whom, and when are scholarly publications mentioned and discussed on social media platforms. These new indicators, popularly known as altmetrics and more technically referred as social media metrics are usually proposed as potential alternatives to citation-based indicators to inform research evaluation. The research presented in this book provides the state of the art in the possibilities of social media metrics for informing research evaluation. The main ambition is to increase the knowledge and understanding of the limitations, challenges, and actual possibilities of social media metrics for research evaluation. This thesis describes the presence and distribution of different social media metrics across scientific publications and their relationship with traditional impact indicators. It further describes the main characteristics of publications mentioned in Mendeley as one of the main social media metrics platforms. Moreover, critical challenges regarding data quality issues of social media data are thoroughly described and discussed. Finally, some possibilities and applications of social media metrics for informing research evaluation are presented. Merit, Expertise and Measuremen