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Online presence

Twitter

Twitter is a useful tool not only for promoting your own research, but for participating in conversations surrounding particular topics or the practice of research itself. See the following example from the hashtag #phdchat:  

Some other twitter profiles you may find useful:

Social networks

We have all heard of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but the social networks designed specifically for researchers are becoming more prominent. The three most popular are ResearchGate, Academia.edu and LinkedIn: 

 All are free and offer opportunities to connect with other researchers in your field, locally and internationally.

Altmetrics

Alternative metrics or altmetrics are a way of measuring article impact outside of academia, for example, how often research is tweeted, blogged about, or bookmarked. Altmetrics are not a replacement for traditional citation counts or the h-index, but complement traditional metrics with additional data.

The 3 primary services compiling and providing altmetrics currently are Altmetric, ImpactStory and PlumX

Altmetrics are displayed for Open Access works in Pure. If a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is listed with a publication you will see available altmetrics listed as well.  Look for this symbol:

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Altmetrics are also increasingly being included in academic databases, eg. Scopus, Sciencedirect, Wiley, Taylor and Francis, Springer and others. Find your publication listed in an online database, and check to see if there are any available altmetrics provided.

Almetrics provides a free bookmarklet for Chrome, Firefox and Safari. Install the bookmarklet here, then when you find your publication online click the bookmarklet to see available altmetrics (this only works on webpages which list a DOI, or PubMed or arXiv).

Contact your Faculty Librarian for assistance with finding altmetrics for your publication.

Research impact and engagement