News and Mainstream Media

Altmetric's manually curated collection of news sources captures mentions in real-time, as long as the posts contain a direct link to a research output or the necessary information for text mining.

It's important to note that we don’t automatically track all available news sources online but instead a manually curated collection of sources -- particularly reputable sources likely to refer to research outputs.

We started tracking attention to news outputs in 2011 although most news attention you will see in the Altmetric database starts in 2012. Once a news source is indexed in our database, our tracking system will receive all future posts mentioning research outputs through its API or its RSS feed.

Make sure that:

• Altmetric is tracking the news source

• The posts that mention research outputs include the direct link to these outputs and/or the necessary information for text mining

Altmetric tracks a manually curated list of global journalistic entities. To maintain data quality, we focus on sources that provide original reporting and professional editorial oversight. These generally fall into the following categories:

• Global & National Media: Major newspapers of record (e.g., The New York Times), wire services (Reuters, AP), and major broadcasters (BBC, CNN).

• Specialist & Trade Press: Outlets focused on specific sectors like science, health, or industry (e.g., Scientific American, Chemical & Engineering News).

• Digital Publications: Established online-only news sites and digital natives (e.g., Vox, The Huffington Post).

• Regional & Local News: Trusted local outlets, including tabloids and state-funded media with significant public reach.

When we vet a new source for inclusion, we look for professional standards that ensure the "attention" being tracked is meaningful. We prioritize sites where:

• Reporting is regular and original: The site is updated frequently (usually daily) with clear, grammatically correct news stories.

• Editorial integrity is clear: The site must not be dominated by advertising, sponsored content, or "content farms" that simply republish others' work.

• Content is safe and legal: We do not track sources that promote hate speech, violence, or illegal content.

To ensure our "News" category remains distinct from other types of online attention, we do not index the following as news sources:

• Academic Journals: Peer-reviewed research is considered the source of the news, not the news reporting itself.

• Institutional Newsrooms: "Press" pages for universities or NGOs are often promotional. These are usually tracked under Policy Documents or Blogs.

• Corporate Blogs: Company-owned marketing or PR sites are categorized as Blogs.

• Aggregators & Spam: Sites that lack original reporting or exist primarily to host ads and redirects.

You can suggest a news source to be indexed to our database by completing this form, you’ll need to be able to provide the following information: 

• Source name

• Source homepage URL

• An example URL of an article mentioning a research output from this source

Once we receive the form, we will consider the source for inclusion in the Altmetric database. 

On an Altmetric Details Page, the “News” tab lists news posts by time of publication in descending order, with the most recent ones available at the top of the page. You can see which source posted about the research output and the content of the post. 

The News mentions also appear as red in the Altmetric donut.