Dimensions and Altmetric Explorer for Institutions: Looking beyond citation counts

How do we measure research impact? For many years, citation counts and other traditional bibliometric indicators have been the primary ways to assess scholarly influence. While citations remain an important indicator of academic impact, they tell only part of the story. The impact of research often extends beyond citation counts, influencing policy development, healthcare practices, industry innovation, and public discourse.

In partnership with Penn’s Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR) and the Perelman School of Medicine (PSOM), the Penn Libraries has licensed institution-wide access to Dimensions and Altmetric Explorer for Institutions. These two tools help researchers explore the broader dimensions of research impact; they offer complementary perspectives on how research is produced, connected, cited, and discussed.

What is Dimensions?

Dimensions is a research information platform that connects publications with other factors of the research network, including grants, datasets, clinical trials, patents, and policy documents. It allows:

• Connected Data: Links publications, grants, clinical trials, patents, and policy documents in one platform.

• Academic Scope: Tracks traditional metrics like citation counts and publication output alongside contextual funding and grant data.

• Access: Offers both a robust free tier for basic research and advanced institutional analytics.

Dimensions can help researchers and librarians answer questions such as:

• What research has been published on a particular topic?

• Who are the leading researchers or institutions in a field?

• How has research activity changed over time?

• Which publications have received the most citations?

• What grants are supporting research in a particular area?

• How is research connected to clinical trials, patents, datasets, or policy?

Dimensions also has options for sharing the data and generating analytical reports, which include built-in visualizations such as VOSviewer. 

What is Altmetric Explorer?

While Dimensions helps researchers assess scholarly impact through publication and citation metrics, Altmetric Explorer measures and showcases the wider attention, influence, and engagement generated by research outputs. It allows:

• Attention Tracking: Tracks online attention to research by monitoring mentions in news media, social media, blogs, and public policy documents.

• Altmetric Attention Score: Uses a weighted system to show how much and where a publication is being discussed outside of traditional academic journals.

• Real-World Impact: Reveals public engagement and cultural footprint long before standard citation metrics accumulate.

Researchers can use Altmetric Explorer to examine:

• Which publications from a research group have received the most attention?

• Which papers have been discussed in the news?

• Has research been mentioned in policy documents or clinical guidelines?

• Which research outputs are generating attention on social media?

• How has attention to a publication changed over time?

• What audiences or geographic regions are engaging in research?

Using the Tools Together

Dimensions and Altmetric Explorer answer somewhat different questions.

Dimensions can help examine scholarly impact, citations, research networks, funding, and connections across the research ecosystem.

Altmetric Explorer can help examine broader attention, including news coverage, social media discussions, policy mentions, and other forms of engagement.

Using both tools provides a more thorough picture of research impact, such as:

• Complete Picture: Merges internal academic success (via Dimensions Analytics) with external public visibility (via Altmetric).

• Strategic Insights: Helps universities and researchers report broader societal impacts to funding bodies and stakeholders.

• Deep Analysis: Streamlines reporting for institutional evaluation, tenure packages, and grant applications.

For example, a recently published article may have relatively few academic citations because it has not been available long enough to accumulate citations. However, an Altmetric analysis may show that the article has received substantial attention from news organizations, policymakers, clinicians, or social media users. Dimensions may provide additional context about the article's research connections, citations, funding, and related outputs.

Together, these perspectives help demonstrate both scholarly influence and broader reach.

How to access Dimensions and Altmetric

You can find both Dimensions and Altmetric Explorer for Institutions in the library catalog. Training resources for Dimensions are available on demand at learn.dimensions.ai. Just create an account using your Penn credentials to get started. Within Altmetric Explorer, the “help” section leads to additional support resources.