What are PlumX Metrics?

PlumX Metrics are separated into the following five individual categories so that the user can more easily analyze and compare similar types of data:

• Citations contain the counts of how many times research has been cited by others. Examples include both traditional citation indexes, such as Scopus, and citations that indicate the societal impact of a research output, such as Clinical, Patent, or Policy citations.
• Usage is a way to signal if anyone is reading the article or otherwise using the research. Usage is the number one statistic researchers want to know after citations. Examples of usage are clicks, downloads, views, book holdings, and video plays.
• Captures indicate that someone wants to come back to work. Captures can be a leading indicator of future citations. Bookmarks, favorites, saves, readers, and watchers are examples of Captures.
• Mentions are a measurement of activities such as news articles or blog posts. Mentions are a way to tell that people are truly engaging with the research. Blog posts, comments, Wikipedia, reviews, and news media are tracked as Mentions.
• Social media includes the likes, shares, and comments that reference the research. Social media can help track attention and measure how well a particular piece of research has been promoted.

Follow these steps to find PlumX metrics:

1. Run a Quick or an Expert search.
2. From the Document results list, click the title of the document that you want to view. The record page opens.
3. From the left side of the record page, click ‘Metrics’ to access the Metrics section directly. PlumX Metrics information displays in this section of the record page.

The PlumX Metrics information contains metrics from each of the five individual categories. Each category contains various subcategories, along with the total number of items associated with them. Examples of subcategories include Citations, Captures, and Social Media.

The graphic is called a ‘Plum Print.’ Each color in the ‘Plum Print’ graphic represents one of the five categories. The size of the component color represents the total number of items associated to that category, so the larger the component color, the larger the total of associated items.

Click ‘See all PlumX details’ for more metrics about the record. The ‘PlumX Metrics’ page opens.

The PlumX Metrics page provides a thorough description of all metrics captured for the record. This page contains detailed graphics and charts showing the five categories and the totals of items listed for each subcategory. Additionally, this page contains an article description and bibliographic details (as present and applicable in the record) such as the arXiv ID, DOI, PMID, link(s) to the record, Author name(s), Publisher(s), and Tag(s), as well as applicable ‘Most Recent Blog’ and ‘Most Recent News’ mentions.