Social Media and Citation Metrics

Quantifying scholarly output via traditional citation metrics is the time-honored method to gauge academic success. Assessing the impact of a scholar’s work can be measured by evaluating several factors including the number of peer-reviewed publications, citations to these publications, and the influence of the publications. These metrics take a relatively long time to accumulate; some are available only via subscription resources, and often these data measure influence only on a specific scientific community. Although these accepted tools provide a means to weigh scholarly output, they do not tell the entire story.

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