Scientists at CABI will be able to gauge the impact of their agricultural and environmental research in several unique ways by partnering with PlumX from Plum™ Analytics, an EBSCO company. As part of a six-month pilot program, CABI is using PlumX metrics to measure the recent research of its authors and is showcasing their articles and books on CAB Direct, its scientific research portal. PlumX's Plum Print data visualisation tool will provide clear feedback on how the articles and books were consumed, providing timely information on usage, citations, captures, mentions and social media output.
PlumX analytics measure research impact in a variety of electronic media, which keeps pace with the real-time nature of the Web-based world where academic research is increasingly accessed. Cristina Ashby, Head of Publishing Platforms at CABI, remains confident that using alternative metrics to measure this impact will provide CABI and its researchers with a realistic picture of how research is being used.
Plum Analytics gathers metrics (often called altmetrics) about research from more than thirty sources including PLOS, PubMed and YouTube, and categorises them into Usage, Captures, Mentions, Social Media and Citations. Its product, PlumX, is an impact dashboard that provides information on how research output is being utilised, interacted with, and talked about around the world.
