“Based on the name “alternative” metrics, you clearly think altmetrics can replace citations. That’s dumb.”

I (Jason) have heard this critique more times than I care to count. And on one level, I get it. If  you take an “alternate route,” you don’t take the original route, you take a different one. There’s a replacement. And completely replacing citation metrics with altmetrics is, I agree, dumb. That said, I actually believe altmetrics should complement citation, and I further think that the name “altmetrics” (for all its flaws) is compatible with this view. To explain, here’s an example:

I’m currently looking out the window at a street which includes both a lane for cars, and another lane for “alternate transportation,” a category that includes bicycles, skateboards, and scooters.

Although these “alternate” vehicles have many advantages over cars (cleaner, smaller, etc) the goal of city planners is not, as I understand, to replace automobiles with alternate transportation. Rather, the goal is to make it easy for commuters to use the most suitable vehicle for their particular trip. This in turn supports a more efficient infrastructure for the city as a whole. Making it easy for commuters to choose alternate transportation for a given trip is helpful, even though no one really expects bikes to completely replace cars in the city as a whole.

(As an aside: these “alternate” vehicles could probably have some other, more descriptive name….for instance, “smaller-more-efficient vehicles.” However, as a practical matter, cars are the default for now so bikes etc remain “alternatives” for now. This is also true of altmetrics, of course, which I often hear will someday be obsolete as a term, once it really catches on. To this I say: excellent. The sooner the better.)

Like bikes et al, altmetrics aren’t right for every use case, and never will be. Altmetrics can’t and shouldn’t replace citation metrics for every task. But they are much better tools than citation metrics for some tasks (for example, understanding the impact of research on populations that don’t write scholarly papers). Therefore, using altmetrics alongside citations will let us measure scholarly impact more in a way that’s more efficient, nuanced, and comprehensive. Altmetrics are an alternative to the measurement gridlock that comes from over-reliance on citation metrics.