Altmetrics: The awareness and interest

Abstract

The characteristics of academic users interested in altmetrical infor-mation are defined. The online survey of 302 academic respondents was conduc-ted to reveal the level of awareness and interest of scientific community. The analysis of the responses about altmetrics is supplemented with the data on the respondents' using traditional scientometric information. It was found that with a high degree of interest in traditional scientometric indicators (91.4% of respondents refer to them), altmetrics remained mostly out of the eye of scien-tists. Only 6.6% respondents use altmetrics, while the others are still unfamiliar with altmetrics or do not use them. However, over the half of respondents ex-pressed interest in altmetrics: 11.9% consider the method necessary, and 43% would like to learn more about it. The correlation between academic status and awareness of/or interest in altmetrics was found: applicants and candidates of science and applicants for this degree proved to be more interested in altmetrics information than doctors of science. The correlation between the aware-ness/interest and researcher’s area of studies appeared insignificant. The findings of the study may be used to improve the information support of scientists. The research model can be applied to other groups of library users.