Online indicators for non-standard academic outputs

Abstract

This chapter reviews webometric, altmetric, and other online indicators for the impact of nonstandard academic outputs, such as software, data, presentations, images, videos, blogs, and grey literature. Although the main outputs of academics are journal articles in science and the social sciences, and monographs, chapters, or edited books to some extent in the arts and humanities, many scholars also produce other primary research outputs. For nonstandard outputs, it is important to provide evidence to justify a claim for a type of impact and online indicators indicatoronline may help with this. Using the web, academics may obtain data to present as evidence for a specific impact claim. The research reviewed in this chapter describes the types of evidence that can be gathered, the nature of the claims that can be made, and methods to collect and process the raw data. The chapter concludes by discussing the limitations of online data and summarizing recommendations for interpreting impact evidence.