Metrics for grant applications

Use alternative metrics (or altmetrics) to describe the reach and impact of your research outside of academia. Altmetrics can uncover the volume and nature of attention to your publications from sources including:

• Government policy documents
• Patent citations
• News articles and mainstream media
• Social media (likes, retweets, comments)
• Curriculum documents.

Use Altmetric Explorer for Institutions to track your altmetrics.

1. Login to Altmetric Explorer for Institutions using your ACU credentials (or create an account).
2. Search for yourself (as a verified author). Tips for searching in Altmetric Explorer.
3. Export the data to Excel for analysis.

Online attention to your publications is represented both visually and numerically:

• The multi-coloured Altmetric doughnut represents the volume and source of online attention. The colours of the doughnut represent the sources of online mentions.
• The number in the middle of the doughnut is the Altmetric Attention Score, a product of the number of mentions and the quality of the mentions sources. 

Example statements:

My research on ____, published in The Lancet, has received an Altmetric Attention Score of 191, placing it in the top 5% of research outputs scored by Altmetric. It has been mentioned in 24 news stories, 3 blog posts, 8 policy documents and 49 tweets (Altmetric Explorer, Feb 2025).

My paper ___ has received international news coverage from major news outlets including the
New York Times, reaching millions worldwide. This has implications for far-reaching changes in personal nutrition choices, based upon my research (Altmetric Explorer, Feb 2025).

This work informed non-complex fracture guidelines from the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence recommending that paediatric patients receive ibuprofen to manage mild to moderate pain (Altmetric Explorer, Feb 2025).

Altmetrics Tips

• You publications must be in ACU Research Bank to appear in the ACU instance of Altmetric Explorer for Institutions. Each publication must contain a unique identifier (like a Digital Object Identifier) to be tracked.
• Delve beyond the quantitative data and click through to see the source of attention to your work. Discover the types of people accessing and sharing your research to form a narrative.
• Search by subject area using Field of Research Codes.
• Publications pre-2011 are not tracked. 

Policy Impact in SciVal

Use the Impact Module in SciVal to identify mentions of publications in policy documents that support the development of your impact narrative beyond citations.

1. Login to SciVal.
2. Go to the Impact Module.
3. Set the Scope to Scholarly Output.
4. Select your date range.
5. Click on Researchers and Groups in the Entity Panel (left hand side of screen) and search for your name. Note that if your name does not appear, you will need to Import a new Researcher.
6. Select the radio button next to your name and your policy metrics will display.
7. Export data for analysis in Excel.

Patents often cite research papers as well as other patents. If your original research has been cited in a patent, this shows the connection between your work and industry or commercial activity.

If you have your own patents, this shows how your research has led to innovation or technical change. Citations may be an indicator of patent impact, including citations in other patents and articles. 

There is a time delay of about 18 months after the patent application date for the patent to be published and available for use in research metrics.

SciVal identifies and counts citations that research papers have received from patents, and links to both the citing patents and cited articles. When viewing your record in the 'Overview' module in SciVal, see the 'Patent Impact' heading to view patent related metrics.

Altmetric allows you to search for yourself by selecting the 'Edit search' option and entering your name in the Verified Author field. Patent mentions can be viewed under Policy and patents in the Attention Breakdown. On an Altmetric Details Page, the Patents tab lists mentions by time of publication in descending order. You can see the patent title, the application ID and the registration body. Clicking on a mention will send you to the patent page on the Dimensions platform. Patent mentions appear as dark orange in the Altmetric donut.

Lens is a database for articles and patents, with an extensive number of search fields and tools for visualizing citation data. Search for patents to see what articles and patents they cited, and what patents cited the patent.

Google Patents includes more than 120 million patent publications. A list of citing patents, including family to family citations is included in the full text of the patent.