What Altmetric does

Altmetric is a London-based data analytics company founded in 2011 that tracks and measures online attention to published scholarly research. The company operates a proprietary platform that aggregates mentions from thousands of sources in real time, including social media (Twitter/X, Facebook, Bluesky), mainstream news outlets, policy documents (536 sources across 35 languages), patents, Wikipedia, blogs, and podcasts (added in October 2025 as a world-first). Its core product, Altmetric Explorer, is an enterprise subscription platform that combines search, monitoring, reporting, and benchmarking; complementary offerings include Altmetric Badges (embeddable attention visualizations), the Altmetric API for technical integrations, Altmetric on GBQ for Google BigQuery-based analysis, and Altmetric Consulting Services for bespoke dashboards.

Revenue is generated through enterprise subscription licenses, API subscriptions, consulting services, and paid embed services, with free tools (Bookmarklet, free Badges, non-commercial API access) supporting a product-led top-of-funnel into institutional and publisher sales. The company sells primarily through enterprise field sales into six core segments: academic institutions, publishers, individual researchers, government and nonprofit funders, corporate R&D (primarily pharmaceutical and life sciences), and pharmaceutical medical affairs teams. Named customers include Wiley, Springer Nature, SAGE, Cambridge University Press, University of Cambridge, McMaster, the John Templeton Foundation, Neurocrine Biosciences, and CONICET.

Altmetric is a privately held subsidiary within the Digital Science portfolio, sharing infrastructure and data integrations with sister companies including Dimensions, Figshare, and ReadCube. Recent product development has emphasized AI capabilities, including LLM-based scientific sentiment analysis (87.2% accuracy) and the Altmetric Attention Digest generative summarization feature launched in March 2026, positioning the company to expand into workflow-embedded analytics for medical affairs, competitive intelligence, and research strategy use cases.

Name

Altmetric

Legal name

Altmetric

Website

https://altmetric.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Altmetric is a London-based data analytics company that tracks online attention to published research across social media, news, policy, podcasts, and Wikipedia. It serves academic institutions, publishers, pharmaceutical firms, and funders via subscription analytics and AI-powered impact insights.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Research Analytics and Altmetrics

NAICS

Web Search Portals and All Other Information Services (51929), Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers (5131), Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (54191)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)

akta.pro primary industry

Industry & Sector Research (Syndicated/Custom) (BPAHALAE)

akta.pro secondary industry

Content Curation & Bookmarking/Read-Later Platforms (MPACAKAH)

Keywords

• Research impact metrics
• Altmetrics tracking software
• Scholarly attention analytics
• Publication influence data
• Academic engagement monitoring

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Altmetric Explorer Subscriptions: Core platform subscription providing access to the full Altmetric Explorer database with search, monitoring, and reporting capabilities. License-based access for institutions, publishers, and organizations.
2. API Access: Access to Altmetric APIs including Details Page API and Explorer API. Available as add-on to Explorer subscription or separately for organizations with technical integration needs.
3. Consulting Services: Custom data analysis and bespoke dashboard solutions created by data scientists and researchers. Collaborative partnership approach for specific research questions and strategic insights.
4. Altmetric Badges: Embedding service for displaying research attention badges on publisher websites and institutional repositories. Free for individual researchers and academic institutions.
5. Altmetric on GBQ: Integration with Google BigQuery enabling technically expert teams to run complex enriched queries using Altmetric data combined with their own datasets.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels12 records

Core offering

Altmetric tracks and aggregates online attention to published scholarly research across thousands of sources — social media, news outlets, policy documents, patents, Wikipedia, blogs, podcasts, and clinical guidelines — and translates that attention into quantified Altmetric Attention Scores, demographic insights, sentiment analysis, and visualizations. Core deliverables are the Altmetric Explorer subscription platform, embeddable Badges for visual display, and the Altmetric API for data integration, sold primarily to academic publishers, research institutions, pharmaceutical/medical affairs teams, and nonprofit/government funders.

Product overview

Altmetric offers a comprehensive suite of products centered on tracking and measuring online attention to research. The core product is Altmetric Explorer, a platform that aggregates attention data from thousands of sources including social media, news, policy documents, patents, Wikipedia, and podcasts. This platform is complemented by Altmetric Badges for visual display of attention, and the Altmetric API for data access. The offering includes specialized dashboards (Share of Voice, Journal Selection, Publication Impact, Journal Benchmark) for pharmaceutical and publishing clients, AI-powered features including Attention Digest for automated narrative summaries and Sentiment Analysis for analyzing mention tone, plus tools for book tracking and researcher analysis. Altmetric on GBQ provides Google BigQuery integration for advanced data analysis. Free tools include bookmarklets, institutional repository badges, and researcher badges. As part of Digital Science, Altmetric integrates with Dimensions data and offers the Compass platform for Medical Affairs teams.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Altmetric Explorer Primary subscription platform for tracking and analyzing online attention to published research. Provides access to millions of data outputs with visualizations, powerful search filters, shareable reports, and API interoperability. Sold via enterprise subscription license to institutions, publishers, and organizations.
• Altmetric Badges Embeddable visual indicators (the Altmetric donut) that display online attention to research at a glance, updated daily. Free for individual researchers and academic institutions; subscription-based embedding for publisher and commercial sites.
• Altmetric API Provides flexible API access to Altmetric data for custom searches, visualizations, and integrations. Includes the Details Page API (per-DOI/Journal ID lookup with real-time mention counts and full text) and the Explorer API (custom analytics). Free API access is available for non-commercial academic research purposes.
• Altmetric on GBQ Provides Altmetric data access via Google BigQuery for technically expert teams to run complex, enriched queries. Enables analysis of billions of data points by combining Altmetric data with proprietary and external datasets through existing BI tools.
• Altmetric for Books Tracks reception and influence of book publications. Monitors engagement across all book and chapter levels, tracks individual chapter influence, and provides readership demographics from social media.
• Altmetric Consulting Services Bespoke data analysis and consulting services. Team of data scientists creates customized dashboards and reports including Scientific Share of Voice, Sentiment Analysis, KOL identification, market readiness reports, and benchmark reports for individual customer questions.
• Share of Voice Dashboard Scientific Share of Voice dashboard for pharmaceutical companies to understand research competition across therapeutic areas, measure presence against competitors in real time, and filter by therapeutic area, journal, geography, or clinical trial.
• Journal Selection Dashboard Helps choose the right journal for maximum reach by combining traditional impact metrics with social and online attention data. Combines citations, research fields, open access analysis, and public engagement metrics.
• Publication Impact Dashboard Enables fine-detail evaluation of individual publications benchmarked against peers, journal averages, and competitors. Allows comparison of multiple publications at once to assess HCP reach and identify trends.
• Journal Benchmark Dashboard Tracks and showcases journals' real-world impact versus competitors. Enables evidence-based acquisition decisions, portfolio modeling scenarios, and comprehensive performance reporting.
• Altmetric Attention Digest AI-powered feature that automatically generates narrative summaries of research attention and impact. Transforms complex attention data into clear, concise, shareable summaries integrating with Altmetric Sentiment Analysis. Targets researchers, medical affairs teams, pharma professionals, publishers, and funding bodies.
• Altmetric Sentiment Analysis AI-powered feature using Large Language Models to analyze sentiment in online mentions of research. Classifies mentions on a nuanced 7-point scale from strong negative to strong positive with 87.2% accuracy, trained to understand scientific context including sarcasm and implicit criticism.
• Altmetric Explorer for Nonprofits Specialized version of Altmetric Explorer for nonprofits and government institutions to track reception of published research, benchmark against others, and demonstrate societal influence of funded research.
• Altmetric Bookmarklet Free browser plug-in for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari that allows instant viewing of Altmetric data for any publication with a DOI.
• Institutional Repository Badges Free embeddable badges for academic institutions to display on content hosted on their institutional repository.
• Free Badges for Individual Researchers Free embeddable badges for individual researchers to add context to personal websites or online CVs.
• Compass by Dimensions Publication impact platform for Medical Affairs teams that brings together Altmetric attention data and Dimensions citation data in one self-service workspace. Search and track publications, benchmark performance, and generate executive-ready outputs.
• Researcher Search Capability within Altmetric Explorer enabling comprehensive analysis of researcher-level influence and engagement. Allows searching researchers by name or affiliation and exporting ready-to-share researcher profiles.
• Clinical Guidelines Tracking Tracks research referenced in Clinical Guidelines, providing a clearer picture of how studies influence medical practices and patient outcomes. Marks advancement in understanding translation of research into real-world healthcare impact.

Quantifiable outcome

• 87.2% accuracy in sentiment classification (grouping into negative, neutral, positive categories)
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers15 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

AI capability8 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Digital SciencecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2011Altmetric is part of the Digital Science portfolio of companies, operating as a subsidiary within the group. Digital Science provides infrastructure and shared services across its portfolio companies including Dimensions, Figshare, ReadCubed, and others.
• Dimensions (Digital Science)coreTechnology or IntegrationAltmetric data is combined with Dimensions data across multiple products including dashboards, Dimensions Research Strategy platform, and Compass publication impact platform. Deep integration provides combined coverage of publications, citations, funding, and online attention.
• Google BigQuerycoreTechnology or IntegrationAltmetric on GBQ product integrates with Google BigQuery, enabling technically expert teams to run complex enriched queries combining Altmetric data with their own datasets and existing Business Intelligence tools.
• NISO Altmetrics ProjectminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAltmetric participates in the NISO Altmetrics project as part of broader community engagement to advance discussion and transparency in altmetrics standards.
• Compass by DimensionscoreTechnology or IntegrationCompass is a publication impact platform from Digital Science that combines Altmetric attention data and Dimensions citation data in one self-service workspace specifically designed for Medical Affairs teams.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Others

• Crossref: DOI registration agency whose metadata and APIs underpin scholarly tracking including Altmetric's matching of mentions to publications. Ecosystem infrastructure rather than direct competitor.
• ORCID: Researcher identifier and profile platform often integrated alongside altmetrics in institutional reporting workflows. Complementary rather than competitive, but part of the same research impact ecosystem.

Emerging players

• Figshare: Sister company within Digital Science for research repository and data sharing; integrates with Altmetric via DataCite DOIs to track NTROs. Comparable customer base and complementary product.
• ImpactStory: Open-source altmetrics profile platform for individual researchers. Competes in the researcher-level attention tracking niche, though at significantly smaller scale than Altmetric.
• KUDOS: Research dissemination and impact platform for researchers and publishers. Overlaps with Altmetric's researcher engagement and publication amplification use cases.

Broad incumbents

• Elsevier (Pure / SciVal): Major publisher offering Pure research information management and SciVal analytics, which incorporate altmetrics and citation tracking. Competes for the same university and institutional research impact reporting budgets.
• Clarivate: Established research analytics incumbent offering Web of Science, InCites, and various impact metrics. Competes for publisher and institutional spend on research intelligence and increasingly bundles altmetrics-style signals.
• Digital Science: Altmetric's parent company and broader research technology portfolio. Provides shared infrastructure and complementary products (Dimensions, Figshare, ReadCube) that compete for the same institutional wallet.
• Dimensions: Sister company within Digital Science; combines publications, citations, grants, patents, and clinical trials. Increasingly overlaps with Altmetric via Compass and Dimensions Research Strategy, and competes for the same institutional and pharma research-analytics budgets.

Direct peers

• PlumX Metrics: Direct competitor in the altmetrics space, offering usage, captures, mentions, social media, and citations tracking for scholarly outputs. Closely comparable product, customer base (publishers and institutions), and business model to Altmetric.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/altmetric
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/Altmetric
• Facebookfacebook.com/Altmetric
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/altmetric
• Instagraminstagram.com/altmetric

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Altmetric