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A critical review on altmetrics: can we measure the social impact factor?

ABSTRACT: Altmetrics measure the digital attention received by a research output. They allow us to gauge the immediate social impact of an article by taking real-time measurements of how it circulates in the Internet. While there are several companies offering attention scores, the most extensive are Altmetric.com (Altmetric Attention Score-AAS) and Plum X (Plum Print). As this is an emerging topic, many medical specialities have tried to establish if there is a relationship between an article's altmetric data and the citations it subsequently receives. The results have varied depending on the research field. In radiology, the social network most used is Twitter and the subspeciality with the highest AAS is neuroimaging. This article will review the process involved from the start when an article is published through to finally obtaining its altmetric score. It will also address the relationship between altmetrics and more traditional approaches focusing on citations in radiology and will discuss the advantages and limitations of these new impact indicators.

SUBMITTER: Garcia-Villar C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8253863 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A critical review on altmetrics: can we measure the social impact factor?

García-Villar Cristina C

Insights into imaging 20210702 1

Altmetrics measure the digital attention received by a research output. They allow us to gauge the immediate social impact of an article by taking real-time measurements of how it circulates in the Internet. While there are several companies offering attention scores, the most extensive are Altmetric.com (Altmetric Attention Score-AAS) and Plum X (Plum Print). As this is an emerging topic, many medical specialities have tried to establish if there is a relationship between an article's altmetric ...[more]

PMID: 34215935

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Project description:In science, sleeping beauties (SBs) denotes a special phenomenon of the diffusion of scientific knowledge based on citation trajectories, the awakening of which is also measured through changes in the citations index. However, the rapid advancement of social media has altered the mode of scientific communication and knowledge diffusion. This study aims to re-identify SBs and its Prince from the perspective of comprehensive indicators, which involves the analysis of Altmetrics indexes and Citation index, and investigate the awakening mechanism of A-SB to supplement the research on the awakening mechanism of SBs. By combining Ab index, we redefined the Prince, which makes A-SB receive high attention after a long Sleeping period and reflects the most prominent academic or social behavior that awakens and sustains the Awakening of A-SB. Then we conducted empirical research on the retrieved PLOS Biology collection and examined Prince after identifying the A-SB. The analysis and summary of the characteristics of the identified A-SB and Prince revealed the SBs' awakening mechanism under the comprehensive trajectory based on Altmetrics from the three dimensions of the influence between the indicators, the overall evolution trajectory of A-SB, and literature bibliometric attributes. In the trajectory of Delayed Recognition stage of A-SB, we define the Dogsleep of SBs, which mirrors that the instability of the Sleeping of SBs will generate a specific negative impact on Prince of A-SB and Awakening intensity. Besides, the literature bibliometric attributes cannot reflect the tendency of users to read academic papers, which again proves that the traditional citation index cannot be neglected in the awakening mechanism of A-SB. Overall, this study demonstrates the addition of the Altmetrics indexes as a useful complement, illustrating the inheritance and connection between the SBs based on the comprehensive trajectory and the SBs based on the citation diffusion trajectory.

Project description:PurposeTo provide an overview of altmetrics, including their potential benefits and limitations, how they may be obtained, and their role in assessing pharmacoepidemiologic research impact.MethodsOur review was informed by compiling relevant literature identified through searching multiple health research databases (PubMed, Embase, and CIHNAHL) and grey literature sources (websites, blogs, and reports). We demonstrate how pharmacoepidemiologists, in particular, may use altmetrics to understand scholarly impact and knowledge translation by providing a case study of a drug-safety study conducted by the Canadian Network of Observational Drug Effect Studies.ResultsA common approach to measuring research impact is the use of citation-based metrics, such as an article's citation count or a journal's impact factor. "Alternative" metrics, or altmetrics, are increasingly supported as a complementary measure of research uptake in the age of social media. Altmetrics are nontraditional indicators that capture a diverse set of traceable, online research-related artifacts including peer-reviewed publications and other research outputs (software, datasets, blogs, videos, posters, policy documents, presentations, social media posts, wiki entries, etc).ConclusionCompared with traditional citation-based metrics, altmetrics take a more holistic view of research impact, attempting to capture the activity and engagement of both scholarly and nonscholarly communities. Despite the limited theoretical underpinnings, possible commercial influence, potential for gaming and manipulation, and numerous data quality-related issues, altmetrics are promising as a supplement to more traditional citation-based metrics because they can ingest and process a larger set of data points related to the flow and reach of scholarly communication from an expanded pool of stakeholders. Unlike citation-based metrics, altmetrics are not inherently rooted in the research publication process, which includes peer review; it is unclear to what extent they should be used for research evaluation.

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A critical review on altmetrics: can we measure the social impact factor?

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A critical review on altmetrics: can we measure the social impact factor?

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