Scientific Interactions and Research Evaluation: From Bibliometrics to Altmetrics

Since its creation 350 years ago, the scientific peer-reviewed journal has become
the central and most important form of scholarly communication in the
natural sciences and medicine. Although the digital revolution has facilitated
and accelerated the publishing process by moving from print to online, it has
not changed the scientific journal and scholarly communication as such. Today
publications and citations in peer-reviewed journals are considered as
indicators of scientific productivity and impact and used and misused in research
evaluation. As scholarly communication is becoming more open and
diverse and manuscripts, data, presentations and code are shared online, the
altmetrics and open science movement demand the adaption of evaluation
practices. Parallels are drawn between the early days of bibliometrics and
current altmetrics research highlighting possibilities and limitations of various
metrics and warning against adverse effects.