Tracking Scholarly Influence Beyond the Impact Factor

“A very blunt instrument” is how Peter Binfield of the Public Library of Science describes the impact factor...Mr. Binfield is the publisher of the journal PLoS One and the PLoS community journals, like PLoS Computational Biology. PLoS works on an open-access model; the impact factor doesn’t reign supreme there as it does at so many subscription-based operations. Instead, the publisher emphasizes a variety of article-level metrics: usage statistics and citations, sure, but also how often an article is blogged about or bookmarked and what readers and media outlets are saying about it...PLoS began experimenting with article-level metrics in July 2009. The approach involves “a large basket of metrics,” Mr. Binfield says, but the two most significant categories are citations and usage statistics...PLoS has had more mixed results with some other article-level metrics. Readers have showed little taste for the five-star rating system...[But] Mr. Binfield hopes scholars will see the advantages of “post-publication commentary and discussion” around an article...Over all, the publisher believes that article-level metrics give PLoS a competitive advantage over publishers who don’t share information. “We see this as a powerful thing that demonstrates the power of open access,” Mr. Binfield says. “We really would like to see it adopted much more widely, and for every publisher to provide this kind of data on their articles.”