Springer and Altmetric to launch new platform for book impact at the London Book Fair: Bookmetrix

Springer today announces that it is becoming the first publisher to offer title and chapter level metrics across all of their books via a new platform, Bookmetrix. Developed in partnership with metrics provider Altmetric, the data captured via Bookmetrix is displayed on the book pages on Springer’s content platform SpringerLink and reports how often an individual book or chapter is mentioned, shared, reviewed or read online. Updated in real-time, the data is intended to provide an accurate representation of the current reach, usage, and broader impacts of each book or chapter for all authors, editors and readers.

Martijn Roelandse, Manager Publishing Innovation at Springer, said, “Bookmetrix will change the way we look at books. We really wanted to create a place for our authors and editors that collates all possible book metrics in one place.”

Also available via Papers, the reference manager, Bookmetrix provides book and chapter level metrics via a detailed book overview page, which is made up of five tabs: citations, online mentions, readers, reviews, downloads.

  • The Citations tab shows the number of citations on both book and chapter level, based on data collected by CrossRef.
  • The Mentions tab uses data provided by Altmetric to show users how the book/chapter has been discussed, mentioned or shared in online sources including public policy documents, mainstream news outlets, blogs, and a variety of social networks.
  • The Readers tab offers information on how many people have saved the book/chapter in their Reference Manager, including their country of origin and occupation.
  • The Reviews tab displays excerpts of book reviews known to Springer.
  •   The Downloads tab displays both the monthly and total download figures for the book/chapter as recorded via SpringerLink.

Milan Wielinga, EVP Strategy and M&A at Springer commented: “The scope of Bookmetrix is wider than existing initiatives in the market: it covers substantially more books and goes beyond pure citation data. Bookmetrix fits in Springer’s ambition to drive more industry-wide initiatives to support the work of authors and researchers.”

Speaking on the collaboration between Altmetric and Springer, Euan Adie, Founder of Altmetric, added, “We’re very researcher focused and soon found that Springer was too, which made it easy to work together on Bookmetrix. It’s a unique platform and we’re keen to set a new standard for following a book’s progress after publication.”

The application to register Bookmetrix for a trademark is pending, and the book and chapter level data for all Springer titles is now available via the Papers and SpringerLink platforms.

Altmetric was founded in 2011 and has made it a mission to track and analyze the online activity around scholarly literature. Altmetric tracks what people are saying about research outputs online, and works with some of the biggest publishers, funders and institutions around the world to deliver this data in an accessible and reliable format. Altmetric is supported by Digital Science, a division of Macmillan Science and Education.

If you would like to interview Springer staff about Bookmetrix, you can visit us at the London Book Fair, Booth 7C40, anytime.