Databases

EBSCO Adds New Analytics Widget to Search Results

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 06/23/16

EBSCO has added the Plum Print widget to its EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) and EBSCOHost databases in an effort to offer users new research insights by viewing modern metrics.

The result of a partnership with the EBSCO-owned company Plum Analytics, the new integration will allow users "to visualize the research impact of all items in the results list, including articles, books chapters, e-books, and institutional repository materials," according to a news release. "Powered by the PlumX Suite, the Plum Print visually changes depending on the altmetrics found in each of the five categories: usage, captures, mentions, social media and citations, providing added research insight at the artifact level."

The widget will appear in search results, giving users a quick visual cue to help find information they're interested in. Hovering over the widget will offer a visual breakdown of the altmetrics and clicking on it will open the Plum Suite for more in depth information.

"As EBSCO moves forward as a technical innovator for libraries and their institutions, we think altmetrics is an important component for them," said Mark Herrick, senior vice president of business development and strategy at EBSCO, in a prepared statement. "That was our initial motivation in January 2014 when we acquired Plum Analytics. Since that time we've done a lot of careful work, including a trial roll-out of the Plum Print in our CINAHL database, building a scalable infrastructure and gathering metrics for a very large number of articles and other research artifacts to give users of EDS and other databases an optimal experience."