REVIEW article
Front. Res. Metr. Anal.
Sec. Scholarly Communication
"Altmetrics in the Evaluation of Scholarly Impact: A Systematic and Critical Literature Review."
Provisionally accepted
- 1Universidad de las Américas, Quito, Ecuador
- 2Universidad Tecnologica Indoamerica - Quito, Quito, Ecuador
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Altmetrics have emerged as a complementary tool to traditional citation-based metrics in the assessment of scholarly impact. Unlike traditional metrics that primarily capture academic citations over long periods, altmetrics reflect immediate online attention across platforms such as Twitter, blogs, news outlets, and Mendeley. This article critically examines whether altmetrics can serve as a substitute for traditional metrics by exploring their strengths, limitations, disciplinary variations, and correlation with conventional indicators. Through a review of recent empirical studies and theoretical debates, the article argues that while altmetrics offer valuable insights into social impact and engagement, they are not yet mature or standardized enough to fully replace traditional metrics. Instead, a hybrid model that integrates both systems may offer a more holistic and inclusive measure of research influence.
Keywords: Altmetrics, Traditional metrics, Scholarly impact, research evaluation, hybrid metrics
Received: 26 Aug 2025; Accepted: 10 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 González, Fors and Torres. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Martha María Fors, martha.fors@udla.edu.ec
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.