  Today, it is not clear how the impact of research on other areas of society
than science should be measured. While peer review and bibliometrics have
become standard methods for measuring the impact of research in science, there
is not yet an accepted framework within which to measure societal impact.
Alternative metrics (called altmetrics to distinguish them from bibliometrics)
are considered an interesting option for assessing the societal impact of
research, as they offer new ways to measure (public) engagement with research
output. Altmetrics is a term to describe web-based metrics for the impact of
publications and other scholarly material by using data from social media
platforms (e.g. Twitter or Mendeley). This overview of studies explores the
potential of altmetrics for measuring societal impact. It deals with the
definition and classification of altmetrics. Furthermore, their benefits and
disadvantages for measuring impact are discussed.
