The big challenge of Scientometrics 2.0: exploring the broader impact of scientific research in public health

In the present study we discuss the challenge of “Scientometrics 2.0” as introduced by Priem and Hemminger (2010) in the light of possible applications to research evaluation. We use the Web of Science subject category public, environmental and occupational health to illustrate how indicators similar to those used in traditional scientometrics can be built, and we also discuss their opportunities and limitations. The discipline under study combines life sciences and social sciences in a unique manner and provides usable metrics reflecting both scholarly and wider impact. Nonetheless, metrics reflecting social media attention like tweets, retweets and Facebook likes, shares or comments are still subject to limitations in this research discipline as well. Furthermore, Usage metrics clearly point to the manipulation proneness of this measure. Although the counterparts of important bibliometric indicators proved to work for several altmetrics too, their interpretation and application to research assessment requires proper context analysis.