Altmetric adds Bluesky social media as a research attention source

Digital Science is excited to announce that Altmetric, which gauges the online attention of research, has added the social media platform Bluesky as a new attention source for published research.

This major development sees Altmetric become the first to systematically track the impact of conversations about research on Bluesky, which has reached more than 23 million users.

The new attention source is reflected in the distinctive Altmetric Badges – appearing as a sky blue color – as well as in Altmetric Attention Scores, and will appear in further detail in Altmetric Explorer.

By adding Bluesky as an attention source, Altmetric will provide:

  • Increased diversity of social media tracking
  • Reliability and continuity in data
  • Broader insights and analysis
  • Transparent attention scoring
  • Social media analytics to drive strategic decisions

Altmetric tracks Bluesky attention in real-time, detecting posts, reposts and quotes that contain a direct link to a scholarly output.

As of today, Altmetric has tracked 395,000 mentions of published research on Bluesky.

Amye Kenall, Vice President of Product, Data & Analytics Hub, Digital Science, said: “Bluesky has become a favored social media channel for research communications professionals and academics. Indeed, in our own research we found over 22% of researchers were using Bluesky over any other social media channel. We believe its importance to the global research conversation will strengthen even further over the coming years.

“Adding Bluesky to Altmetric unlocks a fresh, more comprehensive view of research conversations, which will help provide key insights into the attention research is receiving.

“With Altmetric, we’re empowering research communities to understand the real-world influence of their work. The inclusion of Bluesky supports our users’ need for transparent and comprehensive research engagement in today’s evolving social media landscape.”

Emily Liu, Bluesky Growth & Partnerships, said: “Scientists and researchers have been a core part of the Bluesky community since the very beginning, and we want to make this a great network for them. We’re excited that with Altmetric, it’s now easier to track conversations happening around their research.”

Find out more about Bluesky as an Altmetric attention source