Altmetric allows altmetrics researchers to use its data for free, for noncommercial research purposes.

 

We kindly ask that all researchers who study our data attribute Altmetric in their presentation or publication Acknowledgements section.

 

Ways to access Altmetric’s data

 

We grant access to researchers for noncommercial research purposes. Terms of access are usually granted for 6 months. Researchers seeking access to Altmetric Explorer or high-volume Altmetric Details Page API access must apply to join the Altmetric Researcher Data Access Program by filling this form out.

 

Accessing data with the Altmetric Explorer

 

The Altmetric Explorer is a database that enables you to search and filter all of our data. You can run queries on Altmetric’s data in the Explorer in the following ways:

  • Journal name(s) or ISSN(s)

  • Output DOIs, PubMed IDs, Arxiv IDs, or other identifiers

  • Keyword search in output title 

  • Publication date ranges

  • Mention dates (fixed to previous 24h, day, three days, month, three months, six months, one year)

  • Publisher name

  • PubMed query

  • Name of the outlet or social media user that has mentioned research

 

Search results or individual mentions can then be exported in CSV format. 

 

Accessing data with the Altmetric API

 

The Altmetric Details Page API allows you to run queries based on:

  • Timeframe (i.e. see all outputs mentioned in the previous 24h, day, three days, month, three months, six months, or one year)

  • Output identifier (e.g. retrieve all metrics for mentions of a particular book by ISBN)

 

If you want to use the Altmetric Details Page API to pull metrics for all papers in a particular journal, or for all outputs written in a specific discipline, etc, your best approach is to use another service like Dimensions or Web of Science to create a list of outputs you’d like to retrieve data for. Then, you can write a script or use a wrapper (see Resources below) to programmatically call the Altmetric Details Page API for each output, using those outputs’ identifiers. 

 

We rate limit free API requests, so if you are working without an API key, please limit your calls to no more than 1 per second. If you’d like to make faster API calls, please contact us to apply for the Altmetric Research Data Access Program.

 

Additional resources

 

You can find more resources on how to use these products for altmetrics research here and how to use and cite our data here.


If you’re interested in using Altmetric’s data to create institutional or departmental reports or dashboards, please contact us to inquire about access.