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Alternative metrics

Alternative metrics: what they are, tools to gather them and how to increase your altmetric scores.

Improve your alternative metrics

Five steps you can take to improve your online visibility and alternative metrics:

Register for researcher profiles

To make sure that your publications are attributed to you, register for researcher IDs such as ORCID, and keep your list of publications up-to-date.  Information on other profiles such as Scopus Author Identifier can be found in our Researcher Profiles, Identifiers and Social Networks guide.


Use persistent identifiers

Give your work a persistent identifier such as a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). To reserve a DOI for your outputs, simply deposit your data into Melbourne Figshare. Make sure you include the persistent identifier whenever you share your work so that aggregators like Altmetric can track mentions of your research. 


Use institutional repositories

Make all of your research outputs easily discoverable and available online by depositing your work in a University of Melbourne repository, such as Minerva Access or Melbourne Figshare. These repositories also collect metrics such as views, downloads, and citations. Melbourne Figshare will display additional metrics from Dimensions and Altmetric Explorer when available.


Write about your research online

Write about your research online using news sites and blogs. Suggested news sites include:


Use social media

Increase your ability to track metrics by using persistent identifiers like DOIs when you share your research through the social media platforms your academic community use (e.g. LinkedIn, X/Twitter, Instagram, Facebook).

You might consider creating a profile and adding your publication list to academic social networking sites such as Academia.edu or ResearchGate. Consider the risks and issues involved, such as security, confidentiality and copyright, before using these academic platforms. 


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