Case Study: University of Cape Town helps researchers understand publication reach with Altmetric

University of Cape Town captures research attention in one place with Altmetric

The University of Cape Town's bibliometrics team, which supports its researchers, sought to better understand and showcase the wider impact of their scholarly work, especially for disciplines in the Social Sciences and Humanities that are underserved by traditional citation metrics. They turned to Altmetric, using its Altmetric Explorer tool to uncover who was engaging with their research beyond academic circles.

The solution from Altmetric provided both quantitative and qualitative data on research attention, capturing mentions in news, policy, social media, and demographics from Mendeley. This allowed the university to efficiently gather evidence of real engagement and broader influence. As a result, Altmetric helped fill a critical gap, giving researchers across all fields, particularly non-STEM disciplines, a multidimensional view of their work's reach and impact, which they now discuss in one-on-one consultations.

University of Cape Town