Relationship between altmetric and bibliometric indicators across academic social sites in article-level: the case of Iranian researchers' “Top Papers” in clinical medicine

Abstract

PurposeThe study aimed to measure scientific and social impacts of Iranian researchers' “Top Papers” in clinical medicine using citation and altmetric indicators.Design/methodology/approachIn this applied descriptive-analytical study, it used scientometric analysis. A total of 166 “Top Papers” of Iranian researchers in clinical medicine category of Web of Science (WoS) database including “Highly Cited Papers” and “Hot Papers” published between 2009 and 2019 were used. Overall, 29 indicators and their data were extracted from WoS, Scopus, ResearchGate (RG) and PlumX in March 2020.FindingsThe results showed that there exists a positive correlation between the number of citations in WoS, Scopus, RG, PubMed and Crossref. In addition, it was found that there existed a positive correlation between the received citations by articles and altmetric indicators. According to the results, there is a strong correlation between RG Research Interest and citation impact. The correlation analysis on the Plum Analytics categories including “Usage”, “Capture”, “Mention”, “Social Media” and “Citation” showed the correlations between five dimensions of impact were positive and significant. The results have led the authors to think more about new metrics that can response to new developments in the new information areas.Research limitations/implicationsThere are limitations to access altmetric.com in Iran and cannot be used easily. On the other hand, because of considering 24 indicators, authors had to investigate only a sample of 166 top papers from Iranian researchers to present the detailed results. About nature of altmetric indicators, although they reflect the nonacademic impact of articles alongside bibliographic indicators, they still cannot be a complete representative of the influence of their owners.Practical implicationsThis study can indicate a practical application appropriate for the future study. It would be valuable to further examine how social academic platforms construct images of impact of research and how this impacts the social impact of the university as a mission. This study suggests that social media attention to academic research can be much greater than what is shown in traditional indicators such as citation.Originality/valueThis study examines 29 indicators from four platforms including RG, WoS, Scopus and PlumX, simultaneously and measures the relationship among them.

A Comparative Study of the Usability of Academic Social Networks

“…To find these examples, the existing related literature was reviewed purposively. Finally, 4 popular academic social networks among Iranian researchers were found: Mendeley, ResearchGate, Academia, and LinkedIn (12).…”

Editorial: Special selections on contemporary social media and social network research

“…She analyzed Facebook posts using the Voyant Tools and found unique keywords, different degrees of discussions and engagement within different feminist groups. Readers may also be interested in recent research on social media bibliometrics (Batooli et al ., 2021; Zhang et al ., 2023a, b, c) and the dissemination of academic results (Li et al ., 2021).…”

Research that sparked attention on the social Web in 2020: an Altmetric analysis of “top 100” articles

“…According to her findings, the number of citations to publications in SCI and the number of Altmetric variables in RG had a positive correlation. Batooli et al (2021) evaluated the scientific and social impacts of Iranian researchers “Top papers” in clinical medicine using citation and Altmetric indicators. The findings revealed that the number of citations in Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, RG, PubMed and Crossref are all positively correlated.…”

“…The social Web metrics, also known as Altmetrics was first introduced in 2010 (Priem et al, 2011). Different metrics such as usage, capture, mention and bookmarking are included in Altmetric indicators (Haustein, 2016), "so the impact can be evaluated quantitatively and even be predicted just after an article is published" (Batooli et al, 2021). Altmetrics measures the impact of research beyond citations in scholarly publications and is regarded as a valuable tool for determining the societal impact of research (Piwowar, 2013;Hammarfelt, 2014;Haustein et al, 2014).…”