The sheer variety of metrics can be overwhelming, and it would be much easier if we simply substitute a single number for them all. Such economy – though perhaps convenient – is not feasible if we are to preserve the breadth of information that these metrics offer as well as maintain felicity to their different natures. We will discuss how individual article-level metrics (ALMs) in the PLOS suite measure different things: Different audiences: public vs. scholarly interest Different dimensions: attention, self-promotion, or impact Different timepoints after publication: days, months, or years.

The nature of these measurements is quite dissimilar. As such, they offer different information that is of value in disparate ways. We conclude that it is necessary to look at these metrics altogether as a group, shifting focus to the most relevant ones based on the questions that need to be addressed