This is the second installment in a series on impact measurement for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) researchers.  

In part 1, I discussed traditional metrics for measuring the influence of SoTL work. This post looks at nontraditional methods of showing research impact, regardless of whether the item in question fits conventional molds. More specifically, this post is for those whose SoTL scholarship straddles a wide range of formats, including:

  • Traditional scholarship (articles, chapters, books, etc.)
  • Blogs, op-eds, or other media
  • Audio content (podcasts) and videos
  • Datasets, code, repositories, or other computational tools
  • Something else entirely unique!

As before, I encourage you to pick something from one of your own projects and follow along.

A New Lens

As noted earlier, traditional methods of showcasing research impact have many limitations (Woolston 2023). “Altmetrics” present a different way of gauging attention (Priem et al. 2011). These metrics look at things like the number of times an item has been viewed or downloaded, or even where/how items are being discussed.

Are these “alternative” methods accepted in your department or school? That’s for you to ponder. Do altmetrics help practitioners see their work through a different lens? They often do. Are altmetrics a true indicator of research impact? Well, it depends. Numerous critical studies have examined the validity and limitations of altmetrics as indicators of research impact (Costas, Zahedi, and Wouters 2015; Kassab, Bornmann, and Haunschild 2020). Altmetrics can be used for many different types of work. For the sake of consistency, let’s examine the following article as an example again (like I did in part 1):

McSweeney, Jill, and Matthew Schnurr. 2023. “Can SoTL Generate High Quality Research While Maintaining Its Commitment to Inclusivity?” International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 17 (1): 1–15. https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2023.17104

When viewing this article on the journal’s homepage (figure 1), notice the usage data (507 downloads, as of this writing) and the link to a PlumX Metrics dashboard (figure 2):

Figure 1. Screenshot of “Can SoTL Generate High Quality Research while Maintaining its Commitment to Inclusivity?” article on the International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning homepage with emphasis on 507 downloads.
Figure 2. Screenshot of the article in PlumX’s platform, with emphasis on the Metrics Details dashboard.

Most databases, journal or conference sites, blogs, and video hosting sites will offer an idea of how an item has been used. For broader reach, PlumX, Altmetric, and other companies can be found embedded in select databases and/or journal sites. These tools capture attention from things like news stories, policy documents, Wikipedia pages, and social media. Altmetrics can be found for almost any type of work. Whether you published an article or directed a documentary, there are many ways to measure its reach.

Explore Your Work

  1. Can you find altmetrics for any of your works—no matter the format? Check out places like the website where it was advertised or posted, or (if it’s an academic piece) a large database like Web of Science.
    • What do these alternative measurement methods tell you about your work?
    • How do they compare to the more traditional methods of impact measurement (covered in part one)?
  2. How did the SoTL community receive and/or react to your work?
  3. How could you leverage these things in discussions of impact?

Consider the Library

For alternative measurements of books, chapters, and more, one additional place to look is none other than the local library. SoTL researchers may be familiar with WorldCat, a global library catalog. There are more than 500 million records in WorldCat, so the fastest way to search is usually using the ISBN.

Let’s look at the following example book:

Ketcham, Caroline J., Anthony G. Weaver, and Jessie L. Moore, eds. 2023. Cultivating Capstones: Designing High-Quality Culminating Experiences for Student Learning. New York: Routledge.

According to WorldCat, there are multiple editions of this work at 139 libraries across the United States and around the world (figure 3). The foci of academic library collections differ, which means it can be interesting to see which institutions have decided to keep a copy of Ketcham, Weaver, and Moore’s 2023 work on their shelves.

Figure 3. Screenshot of the book in the WorldCat platform, with arrow pointing to the Find a Copy at a Library feature.

Explore Your Work

  1. Can you find a book you contributed to in WorldCat? How many libraries hold a copy?
    • Do you recognize any of those libraries and their institutions as being known for SoTL and/or educational research?
    • What might it mean for your work to be accessible in those spaces?
  2. Are there different editions and/or reprints of your book?
    • If you’re a senior scholar who originally published something in print, has it been retroactively digitized?

Altmetrics, library holdings, and other forms of usage tracking might not be as familiar as citation counts, but they can offer unique insights into how your work in SoTL may have affected a community.


If you’ve reached the end of these two sections and been discouraged by the lack of influence your work has had, don’t despair. The final part in this series will discuss strategies for increasing the reach of your work.


References

Costas, Rodrigo, Zohreh Zahedi, and Paul Wouters. 2015. “Do ‘Altmetrics’ Correlate with Citations? Extensive Comparison of Altmetric Indicators with Citations from a Multidisciplinary Perspective.” Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology 66 (10): 2003–19. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23309.

Kassab, Omar, Lutz Bornmann, and Robin Haunschild. 2020. “Can Altmetrics Reflect Societal Impact Considerations?: Exploring the Potential of Altmetrics in the Context of a Sustainability Science Research Center.” Quantitative Science Studies, March, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00032.

Ketcham, Caroline J., Anthony G. Weaver, and Jessie L. Moore, eds. 2023. Cultivating Capstones: Designing High-Quality Culminating Experiences for Student Learning. New York: Routledge.

Priem, Jason, Dario Taraborelli, Paul Groth, and Cameron Neylon. 2011. “Altmetrics: A Manifesto.” 185. Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/scholcom/185/.

Woolston, Chris. 2023. “Measuring Societal Impact: How to Go beyond Standard Publication Metrics.” Nature 614 (7947): 375–77. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00345-1.


About the Author  

Ellen Cline is the Engineering & Physical Science Librarian at Elon University. She holds an MSLS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and previously served as a Research Librarian at Missouri University of Science & Technology. 

How to Cite This Post   

Cline, E.  2025. “Telling Your Research Story: Beyond Citations in SoTL.” Center for Engaged Learning (blog). June 6, 2025. https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/telling-your-research-story-beyond-citations-in-sotl.