While perusing an abstract in "Nature this week" , http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v520/n7547/full/520266d.html?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20150416
I found a button to click called "Article Metrics". Once clicked, I found it had three different metrics: 1. citations (zero as the article is brand new, but likely to be frequent in the future), an alimetric score apparently based on 9 tweets and one reddit, and a map of Twitter "demographics" (n = 5). The alimetric score " is calculated based on two main sources of online attention: social media and mainstream news media". Citations have their problems as a growing literature documents, but turning over judgement of quality to Twitter and Reddit suggests Nature is pandering to the standards society uses to judge the Kardasians, Miley Cyrus and Prince Harry in Las Vegas. And we want Congress and the public to take science seriously? David Duffy -- David Duffy 戴大偉 (Dài Dàwěi) Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit Botany University of Hawaii 3190 Maile Way Honolulu Hawaii 96822 USA 1-808-956-8218
