Journalology: Article-level metrics

One of the great recent developments in science publishing is the first hints of article-level metrics: for the first time researchers can get a good idea of how many people are reading and talking about their work.  But there is a history of abuse of metrics in academia, with a still widespread problem of funding committees relying on such inappropriate metrics as the impact factor — that is, they are judging you by a number that tells you how much interest was sparked by research published by other people, years ago.  Today at Journalology, therefore, I urge caution and vigilance when it comes to article-level metrics.