Should an article’s social shares (e.g. in Twitter) or the number of readers in online reference managers be measured? Should these uses and mentions be something that is considered along with citations in published literature?

Article level metrics (read altmetrics: a manifesto) are available on different journals. Several publishers offer data collected from third parties and track different social media sites and online reference managers (e.g. based on Altmetrics). Some are using citations through CrossRef or article usage data from server logs in addition.

Here are some examples:

• Scientific Reports: http://www.nature.com/srep/2014/140716/srep05704/metrics
• Angewandte Chemie: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201305812/abstract
• New Journal of Physics: http://iopscience.iop.org/1367-2630/15/5/053046/metrics