Decode research’s societal impact and see what drives attention – combining Altmetric’s data insights with powerful GenAI narratives
London, UK – Thursday 26 March 2026
Digital Science, a leading technology company serving stakeholders across the research ecosystem, is pleased to announce a new AI-powered feature for Altmetric that makes it easier to understand and communicate research impact.
The new Altmetric Attention Digest streamlines the process of demonstrating research value by automatically generating concise, narrative summaries of a research output’s attention and influence.
This capability moves beyond simply quantifying mentions – it provides a deeper understanding of who’s engaging with the research, how it’s being received, and the nature of its real-world impact across diverse channels.
Available to users of Altmetric Explorer, this innovative feature is designed to address the growing challenge of translating complex research attention metrics into clear, credible, and actionable narratives.
Altmetric Attention Digest is ideal for researchers or research admin teams, medical affairs teams, pharma professionals, publishers assessing article performance and editorial strategy, and governments and funders who need to track the reach and influence of funded research.
The new tool enables users to:
Save time and maximize efficiency
Demonstrate impact effectively
Enhance reporting
Assess content performance
Make smarter, data-driven decisions
Miguel Garcia, VP of Product, Digital Science, said: “We’re all interested in understanding how research impacts society, and although we already have solid ways of assessing academic impact, societal impact analyses could be improved.
“Altmetric has been counting mentions from multiple sources but it has been hard to explain how the research conversation proliferated, what were the main triggers and what real impact happened, especially at scale. Our dream at Altmetric has always been to provide a clean narrative for this.
“The new Altmetric Attention Digest leverages artificial intelligence to cut through data complexity, offering instant, comprehensive insights that empower users to understand the impact of research at a glance, gain strategic insights and make smarter decisions. It gets us much closer to that dream.”
Altmetric is a leading provider of alternative research metrics, helping everyone involved in research gauge the impact of their work. We serve diverse markets including universities, institutions, government, publishers, corporations, and those who fund research. Our powerful technology searches thousands of online sources, revealing where research is being shared and discussed. Teams can use our powerful Altmetric Explorer application to interrogate the data themselves, embed our dynamic ‘badges’ into their webpages, or get expert insights from Altmetric’s consultants. Altmetric is part of the Digital Science group, dedicated to making the research experience simpler and more productive by applying pioneering technology solutions. Find out more at altmetric.com and follow @altmetric on X and @altmetric.com on Bluesky.
About Digital Science
Digital Science is an AI-focused technology company providing innovative solutions to complex challenges faced by researchers, universities, governments, funders, industry, and publishers. We work in partnership to advance global research for the benefit of society. Through our brands – Altmetric, Dimensions, Figshare, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, metaphacts, Overleaf, ReadCube, Symplectic, and Writefull – we believe when we solve problems together, we drive progress for all. Visit digital-science.com and follow Digital Science on Bluesky, on X or on LinkedIn.
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London, UK / Bolzano, Italy – Wednesday 25 March 2026
Digital Science, a technology company providing innovative solutions to stakeholders across the research ecosystem, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Ontopic, a pioneer in Virtual Knowledge Graph technology.
Based in Bolzano, Italy, Ontopic is a spin-off from the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano and is renowned for its expertise in Ontop, the leading open-source framework for Virtual Knowledge Graphs (VKG) and Ontology-Based Data Access (ODBA).
By acquiring Ontopic, Digital Science continues its commitment to democratizing research data and providing enterprise-grade AI solutions that transform fragmented data into actionable knowledge.
Integrating Virtualization with Semantic Discovery
Ontopic’s core technology and its flagship product, Ontopic Studio, will be integrated with metaphactory, Digital Science’s industry-leading knowledge democratization platform. This integration will enable users to build and access Knowledge Graphs directly from their existing data sources, without the need for expensive and time-consuming data transformation.
By combining Ontopic’s virtualization capabilities with metaphactory’s low-code environment for semantic modeling and discovery, Digital Science is creating a seamless, end-to-end pipeline for the “Knowledge-First” enterprise.
Advancing Digital Science’s Knowledge Graph Competency
As part of this acquisition, the Ontopic team will join the recently established Knowledge Graph Competency group within Digital Science. This specialized group will serve as the company’s center of excellence for semantic technology, driving innovation across the Digital Science portfolio, including Dimensions and Altmetric.
The Ontopic management team will take on key leadership roles within this new group, ensuring that their deep academic and technical expertise remains at the heart of Digital Science’s growth strategy.
Responding to Customer Needs
“Our customers have consistently voiced a need for more agile ways to integrate data into their semantic layers and knowledge graphs. By welcoming Ontopic into the fold, we are directly answering that call. Ontopic has deep expertise in data virtualization, combined with a sophisticated approach to mapping management and automation. This represents a key advancement in our commitment to delivering a truly comprehensive and scalable platform, significantly enhancing the coherence and capability of our Enterprise Information Architecture solution,” said Sebastian Schmidt, EVP of the Enterprise segment at Digital Science.
Peter Hopfgartner, CEO and co-Founder of Ontopic, said: “Joining Digital Science is a pivotal moment for Ontopic. Our customers are no longer just looking for data integration; they are building the brain of their enterprise. By combining our virtualization technology with metaphacts, we are delivering a robust Semantic Layer that serves as the essential foundation for Trustworthy AI. Together, we enable AI agents to reason over real-time, distributed data with full context and zero duplication. We aren’t just helping companies find their data; we’re helping them turn it into an intelligent, autonomous asset.”
Alex Weissensteiner, Rector at the Free University of Bolzano (unibz), said: “We believed in Ontopic from the outset, recognizing its strong potential as an initiative rooted in excellent research and innovation. Today, its acquisition by a global knowledge and technology company confirms the soundness of that vision. Particularly significant is the fact that Ontopic will remain headquartered in Bolzano, maintaining here its research and development focus in the field of Virtual Knowledge Graphs.”
Digital Science is an AI-focused technology company providing innovative solutions to complex challenges faced by researchers, universities, governments, funders, industry, and publishers. We work in partnership to advance global research for the benefit of society. Through our brands – Altmetric, Dimensions, Figshare, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, metaphacts, Overleaf, ReadCube, Symplectic, and Writefull – we believe when we solve problems together, we drive progress for all. Visit digital-science.com and follow Digital Science on Bluesky, on X or on LinkedIn.
About Ontopic
Ontopic is the leading provider of Virtual Knowledge Graph solutions. Originating from the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Ontopic helps organizations integrate heterogeneous data sources into a unified semantic layer without the need for data duplication, enabling faster, more cost-effective data discovery.
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Digital Science’s UK Publisher Day 2026 brought together publishers, industry and technology partners to explore the evolving role of publishers at a time when the way we conduct and interact with research is changing.
Across keynotes, panels, lightning talks and case studies, participants at every stage of their careers – from early career professionals to established leaders in scholarly publishing – shared their perspectives on the challenges ahead.
Several themes emerged throughout the day:
AI is reshaping how research is discovered and consumed
Research integrity challenges are becoming increasingly complex
Traditional publishing metrics are under pressure
Collaboration across the research ecosystem is more important than ever
Together, these conversations painted a picture of an industry actively adapting to new technologies, new expectations and new responsibilities.
Digital Science’s Helen Cooke (SVP Sales – Publisher Market) speaking at Publisher Day 2026
The state of scholarly publishing today
The opening keynote by Tim Gillett and Jon Hunt of Research Information explored the current dynamics between academia and the publishing industry, drawing on recent survey data comparing perspectives from institutions and publishers.
While the data showed areas of alignment around priorities such as research dissemination and impact, it also highlighted a persistent trust gap between institutions and the publishing industry. Institutions reported that industry support has improved since 2023, but progress has been gradual and expectations remain high.
Financial pressures across the research ecosystem are also shaping these relationships. Universities, funders and publishers are all navigating constrained budgets while trying to support increasingly complex research outputs and workflows.
A key question emerging from the discussion was who ultimately has the power to drive meaningful change within scholarly publishing. While no single stakeholder controls the system, the session suggested that progress will depend on clearer roles, stronger incentives for collaboration and continued dialogue across the community.
“The industry needs more conversation, clearer definitions of roles and responsibilities, and stronger incentives for collaboration.”
AI, however, was repeatedly highlighted as the issue that may reshape the industry most significantly in the coming years.
What early career professionals see as the future of publishing
The discussion offered valuable insight into how the next generation of publishing professionals view the future of the industry.
Participants highlighted both opportunities and challenges. Open access continues to reshape publishing models, but many authors still struggle to understand how it works.
“Open access is really exciting… but it can get very confusing.”
Peer review was also identified as one of the biggest operational challenges facing publishers today, with many journals finding it increasingly difficult to recruit reviewers.
The panel also reflected on the skills that will matter most in the coming decade.
Adaptability, curiosity and strong interpersonal skills were repeatedly mentioned, particularly as AI becomes more integrated into publishing workflows.
“Don’t be scared… be confident to give things a go.”
Panel of early career professionals at Digital Science’s Publisher Day 2026
AI is reshaping how research is discovered
One of the most widely discussed topics of the day was the impact of Artificial Intelligence on research discovery. A panel discussion (conducted under Chatham House Rules) on journal usage in the age of AI explored how discovery behaviors are evolving as researchers increasingly interact with AI-driven tools.
Traditionally, researchers located content through keyword-based search and navigated directly to journal platforms. Increasingly, however, discovery is shifting toward natural language queries and AI-generated answers.
In this model, a researcher may ask a system a question, receive a summarized response, and never visit the original journal platform at all.
Publishers are already seeing early indicators of this shift. Click-through rates from search engines appear to be declining in some cases, while impressions of research content within search environments are increasing, creating a notable ‘crocodile effect’ within analytical performance.
The challenge for publishers is that research content may still be widely used, but the pathways through which it is accessed are becoming harder to observe directly.
In response, publishers are starting to rethink how content is structured and surfaced. It’s no longer just about optimizing for the end reader, but also for AI systems acting as intermediaries.
This introduces the idea of an “AI persona” alongside the traditional user persona. Content needs to be:
Easy for machines to interpret and extract
Supported by rich, structured metadata
Written and formatted in a way that can be accurately summarized
As discovery continues to shift, the focus moves from driving clicks to ensuring content can be found, understood and used, whether by a human reader or an AI system.
Panel discussion on AI at Digital Science’s Publisher Day 2026
Why research metrics are becoming harder to interpret
While discovery evolves, so too does the challenge of measuring research engagement.
Traditional metrics such as page views, downloads and click-through rates were developed for a web browsing environment. AI-assisted discovery introduces a different interaction model, where insights from multiple papers can be synthesized without the user visiting individual journal pages.
This means that impressions may increase while click-through rates decline, not because content is less useful, but because the user no longer needs to open each source individually and manually scan for the content they need.
For publishers, this creates a new challenge: understanding true research consumption in an ecosystem where AI systems increasingly sit between users and content.
Improving infrastructure will be essential to addressing this issue. Reliable identifiers, well-maintained repositories and rich metadata will all play a role in helping publishers understand how research flows across the ecosystem.
A publisher perspective on implementing integrity tools
A case study from Dr Adya Misra of Sage, offered insight into how integrity tools are being deployed in practice.
The organization was the first publisher to deploy Dimensions Author Check internally and has since expanded its use beyond the research integrity team to commissioning and research engagement staff.
One of the key benefits has been the ability to consolidate information about authors and collaboration networks in a single environment, reducing the time required to validate researchers and investigate potential concerns.
“The tool provides us with the complete information about a record… we’re not having to look at multiple different information sources.”
At the same time, editorial judgement remains central to the process.
“We wanted the tool to guide our decision making but not insert it.”
The experience illustrates how integrity tools can support editorial teams while preserving the human judgement that remains essential to publishing decisions.
Dr Adya Misra from Sage, discussing research integrity at Publisher Day 2026
Detecting misconduct: the role of forensic scientometrics
The final keynote from Emeritus Professor Dorothy Bishop offered a fascinating finale to the day, exploring the growing field of Forensic Scientometrics, associated with independent research integrity investigators sometimes referred to as “sleuths”.
Researchers in this area analyze patterns across the scholarly record to identify potential misconduct, including fabricated research, manipulated images and coordinated paper mill activity.
The work often involves detailed analysis of publication patterns and datasets. In some cases, investigators identify unusual terminology or data inconsistencies that suggest attempts to bypass automated detection systems.
Open data plays a crucial role in enabling this work, allowing researchers to verify findings and identify discrepancies.
However, many of the people carrying out these investigations operate independently, often without institutional support. The time required for formal investigations can also be significant.
Raising concerns about published research can carry reputational risk, particularly when it involves established authors or institutions. In some regions, there may also be broader concerns around professional security and personal well-being.
At the same time, formal investigations can take time. Verifying evidence and navigating editorial or legal processes often slows the path from suspicion to action.
This creates a gap where problematic research can continue to circulate, highlighting the need for better support for investigators and faster, more coordinated responses across the industry.
As Dorothy noted:
“On average it takes about… 250 days to retract an article.”
During that time, problematic research may continue to circulate within the literature.
The discussion raised important questions about how the industry can accelerate investigations while also supporting those working to identify potential misconduct.
Emeritus Professor Dorothy Bishop speaking about research misconduct and forensic scientometrics at Digital Science’s Publisher Day 2026
Final reflections
Digital Science’s UK Publisher Day 2026 highlighted an industry in transition.
Artificial Intelligence is changing how research is discovered and consumed. Traditional engagement metrics are becoming less reliable indicators of research use. Research integrity investigations are growing in complexity. And across all of these issues, collaboration between institutions, publishers and technology providers is becoming increasingly important.
Just as importantly, the event demonstrated the value of bringing the scholarly communications community together.
Events like Publisher Day provide an opportunity to share perspectives, discuss challenges and build the relationships needed to navigate change across the research ecosystem.
🌍 Spatial health research is evolving rapidly with the rise of big data and digital technologies. One innovative approach involves linking geotagged social media data with public health registries to better understand how diseases and health behaviors vary across locations. 📡 Social media platforms provide real-time, location-based insights into population activities, sentiments, and emerging health concerns.
📊 By cross-linking this data with official health records, researchers can identify patterns, track outbreaks, and analyze environmental or social factors influencing public health. 🔍 For example, geotagged posts can help detect early signals of illness spread, while registry data confirms clinical cases. This integration enhances the accuracy and timeliness of health monitoring and supports more targeted interventions.
🚀 However, combining these datasets also raises important challenges, including privacy protection, data quality, and ethical considerations. 🔐 Ensuring secure data handling and responsible use is critical. When managed properly, this approach offers powerful tools for policymakers and health professionals to design smarter, location-based strategies for improving community health outcomes.
