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EBSCO Information Services today announced the acquisition of Plum Analytics, the developer of PlumX, a tool that gives researchers and institutions a more complete view of the impact of their publications by harvesting and aggregating alternative metrics (altmetrics) data in five major categories: usage, captures, mentions, social media, and citations. Plum will continue to offer the same services, with the same management team, operating as a wholly-owned subsidiary of EBSCO.
The University of Pittsburgh recently wrapped up a pilot test with Plum Analytics, one of several new companies in the emerging field of altmetrics. By examining how often a paper is downloaded, mentioned in the news, or linked to on social media sites, altmetrics providers offer researchers, funding agencies, and librarians a more immediate, quantifiable view of the impact an article is having on its field.
Plum Analytics—the altmetrics startup that aims to assess the real-time impact of academic research using sources ranging from Twitter, social networks, and presentation sharing sites to code source repositories and grant funding data—has announced that the University of Pittsburgh Library System (ULS) has become the first to use the company as a provider of aggregated open metrics for the university’s research output.
Two prominent veterans of the library vendor world recently launched a startup company which aims to capitalize on the rapidly flowering field of altmetrics.
