KEY TAKEAWAY

• As the volume of online content created by generative AI grows, altmetrics must adapt to this changing environment or risk becoming redundant.

Altmetrics, which measure the online attention that scholarly literature receives, have proliferated in recent years. Measures such as the Altmetric Attention Score (AAS) are now commonplace on journal webpages, alongside traditional citation analysis. However, as the digital landscape shifts towards content developed by generative artificial intelligence (AI), will altmetrics need to adapt or perish? A recent article by David Stuart for Research Information examined this conundrum.

Generative AI: the challenges for meaningful metrics

Stuart points to various challenges associated with the rapid increase in use of generative AI. Its capabilities can be harnessed to make previously time consuming tasks straightforward. Alongside the benefits this brings, there is an increased risk of:

• purposeful metric manipulation – generative AI could be used to generate large volumes of online mentions, each appearing to originate from a separate user
• AI being used to create and endorse work produced by paper mills
• mentions becoming misattributed by AI to derivative, rather than original, works, skewing metrics data.

Adapt or perish

While it could be argued that this points to the possible demise of altmetrics, we can also look to the words of Okakura Kakuzo: “the art of life lies in constant readjustment to our surroundings”. To this end, Stuart suggests altmetrics will need to adapt if they are to keep pace with a new and changing online environment. For example, as more and more online content is developed by generative AI, one possibility is that social media will move towards the more widespread use of subscription models and verified accounts, with restrictions placed on content generated by other sources. Such changes could mean that a modified information base is available to feed into new or adapted metrics. As the online world continues to adjust to the capabilities of generative AI, so too must the way we use metrics.

Altmetrics will need to adapt if they are to keep pace with a new and changing online environment.

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