Type ‘altmetrics’ in google scholar today and it will pull out more than 4,000 records. Interest and discussion in the use of alternative metrics to measure research impact is growing but there is no agreement on what gets measured, what are the criteria used for assessing quality of the measures, etc. The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) has taken the lead to address these questions and to “develop community-based standards or recommended practices in altmetrics”.
In their June 2013 press release, Todd Carpenter, NISO Executive Director, stated that “The creation of altmetrics standards and best practices will facilitate the community trust in altmetrics, which will be a requirement for any broad-based acceptance, and will ensure that these altmetrics can be accurately compared and exchanged across publishers and platforms.”
This project is scheduled to complete within 2 years.