Can Altmetrics be Used to Evaluate Research

The emergence of social media has made a huge difference in our lives. The extension of social media to evaluate performance in academics is a new entity. Alternative metrics or altmetrics is a relatively new and emerging sector which utilizes the platform of various outlets of social media to determine the impact of a research work. Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc. are now commonly used avenues for research discussion. These avenues can be tapped upon to create a cumulative profile of a research or publisher. However, many believe that altmetrics is just a transient blip on the screen and does not provide complete details. This commentary provides an overview of altmetrics, but with a pinch of salt.