A few months ago, Wiley rolled out the Altmetric service across all journals on Wiley Online Library. A common query we receive from our authors is ‘how can we get involved?’ This post outlines five simple things that you (as authors) can do to help improve your article’s Altmetric score. But first, let me address two fundamental questions.

How is the score calculated? The score is based on the quantitative measure of the attention that a scholarly article has received, and is derived from 3 main factors (volume, sources and authors). News and blog mentions are weighted most heavily, but in short, the more people who mention, and interact, with your article across multiple respected sources, the more likely your score will increase.

So what’s a good score? According to Altmetric, a mid-tier publication might expect around a third of its published papers to be mentioned at least once, with the rate dropping quickly for smaller, specialized publications – but the exact proportion will vary by journal. On this basis many articles will have a score of zero.

Five things you can do to help improve your article’s Altmetric score

Before promoting your article, we recommend that you create (and subsequently use for various promotional efforts) a short summary of your work. This summary should include your key research outcomes (i.e. we did this study on X and got Y results) as well as links to useful additional resources such as videos. This then allows a wider audience to understand and appreciate your research.

1. If you run a blog, add a post about your article. If you have a contact who runs a blog, ask them to help promote your work.
2. Tweet about your paper – either through any existing accounts that you manage or through any society/institutional accounts.
3. Contact your institutional press office to see if your article is relevant for any publicity opportunities.
4. Talk about your paper at your next conference and personally raise awareness of your research within your own community.
5. Create an account with Mendeley and share your work with thousands of fellow academics.

For more information on promoting your article, take a look at Wiley’s Journal Author Promotional Toolkit.

If you click on the Altmetric score icon for your article on Wiley Online Library (above ‘Additional Information’), you can see your individual article stats. This allows you to track your efforts and compare your paper with other articles in the journal.

Take a look at a real example.

This article Enhanced repertoire of brain dynamical states Altmetrics Graphic during the psychedelic experience has a score of 256 (as of September). The score is derived from mentions across 19 news outlets, 4 blogs, 95 Twitter accounts, 11 Facebook pages, 4 Google+ pages and 3 Reddit accounts, as well as a YouTube video. So this gives you a sense of all the different elements that contribute to the Altmetric score.

So try out some of these ideas and let us know what works. Leave a comment below or tweet us your thoughts @WileyExchanges. For more information, visit our Altmetric FAQs page.