An extensive analysis of the presence of altmetric data for Web of Science publications across subject fields and research topics

Sufficient data presence is one of the key preconditions for applying metrics in practice. Based on both Altmetric.com data and Mendeley data collected up to 2019, this paper presents a state-of-the-art analysis of the presence of 12 kinds of altmetric events for nearly 12.3 million Web of Science publications published between 2012 and 2018. Results show that even though an upward trend of data presence can be observed over time, except for Mendeley readers and Twitter mentions, the overall presence of most altmetric data is still low. The majority of altmetric events go to publications in the fields of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities, and Life and Earth Sciences. As to research topics, the level of attention received by research topics varies across altmetric data, and specific altmetric data show different preferences for research topics, on the basis of which a framework for identifying hot research topics is proposed and applied to detect research topics with higher levels of attention garnered on certain altmetric data source. Twitter mentions and policy document citations were selected as two examples to identify hot research topics of interest of Twitter users and policy-makers, respectively, shedding light on the potential of altmetric data in monitoring research trends of specific social attention

Social media metrics for new research evaluation

This chapter approaches, both from a theoretical and practical perspective, the most important principles and conceptual frameworks that can be considered in the application of social media metrics for scientific evaluation. We propose conceptually valid uses for social media metrics in research evaluation. The chapter discusses frameworks and uses of these metrics as well as principles and recommendations for the consideration and application of current (and potentially new) metrics in research evaluation.Comment: Forthcoming in Glanzel, W., Moed, H.F., Schmoch U., Thelwall, M. (2018). Springer Handbook of Science and Technology Indicators. Springe

Altmetrics and Open Access

Altmetrics, in contrast to traditional metrics, measure the societal impact research outputs have on the public in general, using social media platforms as their primary data sources. In this study, differences in Altmetric Scores between open and closed access articles of German research institutions in the field of natural sciences have been analyzed. For this investigation data from the years 2013 to 2017 was gathered from Web of Science, Altmetric.com and Unpaywall. Results indicated that articles published in open access gain higher Altmetric Attention Scores compared to articles behind subscription paywalls, although the difference was statistically not significant. Research outputs published in gold open access had the highest scores, followed by articles in green and then hybrid open access. Furthermore, articles by publishers with higher percentages of open access content gained higher Altmetric Attention Scores than articles distributed by those with medium or low percentages. In a future study additional databases could be included as well as data from years to come. Moreover, a comparable study for the field of humanities would be conceivable, including other document types such as books or contributions in anthologies as well.Altmetrics messen, im Gegensatz zu traditionellen Metriken, den Einfluss von Forschungsergebnissen auf die breite Gesellschaft und nutzen dafür vor allem Social- Media-Plattformen als Datenquelle. In dieser Studie wurden Unterschiede in Altmetric Scores von in Open und Closed Access publizierten Artikeln deutscher Forschungseinrichtungen in den Naturwissenschaften untersucht. Hierfür wurden Daten der Jahre 2013 bis 2017 von Web of Science, Altmetric.com und Unpaywall gesammelt. Die Ergebnisse wiesen darauf hin, dass Artikel in Open Access höhere Altmetric Attention Scores erhalten als Artikel hinter Bezahlschranken. Eine statistische Signifikanz dieser Ergebnisse konnte jedoch nicht nachgewiesen werden. In Gold Open Access publizierte Forschungsergebnisse erreichten die höchsten Werte, gefolgt von in Green und Hybrid Open Access publizierten Artikeln. Zudem wiesen Artikel, die von Verlagen mit hohen Anteilen an Open Access-Inhalten veröffentlicht wurden, höhere Scores auf als jene von Verlagen mit mittleren bis niedrigen Anteilen. In zukünftige umfassendere Studien könnten zusätzliche Datenbanken einbezogen werden sowie Daten aus den kommenden Jahren. Zudem wäre eine vergleichbare Studie für die Geisteswissenschaften denkbar, unter Einbezug weiterer Dokumententypen wie Büchern und Beiträgen in Sammelbänden

Correlation between Altmetric and Scientometric Indicators

Objective: Despite the increasing attention to altmetric indicators in scientometric research, there is still doubt about the validity of these indicators in evaluating research. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between scientometric and altmetric indices on scientific products. Materials and Methods: In the altmetric indices section, five indicator classes presented in Scopus and 36 sub-indices were examined. The Spearman correlation indicator was used to evaluate the correlation between altmetric and scientometric indices. The SPSS software version 16 was used to analyze data. The significance level was also considered less than 0.05. Results: The correlation between the number of citations to documents and Usage, Citations, and Capture was significant. There was no significant relationship between social media and mention. Also, there is a significant and positive relationship between the citations to documents and sub-indices of Abstract views, Link out, Readers, Export/saves, and Citation indicator. Conclusion: Given the important relationship between citation rates and altmetric indicators, it can be said that web-based platforms like scientific databases or social media that are publicly accessible play a very important role in increasing the visibility and citation rate and thus the effectiveness of research

Social media metrics for new research evaluation

Merit, Expertise and Measuremen

Artificial intelligence to support publishing and peer review: a summary and review

Technology is being developed to support the peer review processes of journals, conferences, funders, universities, and national research evaluations. This literature and software summary discusses the partial or complete automation of several publishing-related tasks: suggesting appropriate journals for an article, providing quality control for submitted papers, finding suitable reviewers for submitted papers or grant proposals, reviewing, and review evaluation. It also discusses attempts to estimate article quality from peer review text and scores as well as from post-publication scores but not from bibliometric data. The literature and existing examples of working technology show that automation is useful for helping to find reviewers and there is good evidence that it can sometimes help with initial quality control of submitted manuscripts. Much other software supporting publishing and editorial work exists and is being used, but without published academic evaluations of its efficacy. The value of artificial intelligence (AI) to support reviewing has not been clearly demonstrated yet, however. Finally, whilst peer review text and scores can theoretically have value for post-publication research assessment, it is not yet widely enough available to be a practical evidence source for systematic automation

Scholarly use of social media and altmetrics : a review of the literature

Social media has become integrated into the fabric of the scholarly communication system in fundamental ways: principally through scholarly use of social media platforms and the promotion of new indicators on the basis of interactions with these platforms. Research and scholarship in this area has accelerated since the coining and subsequent advocacy for altmetrics—that is, research indicators based on social media activity. This review provides an extensive account of the state-of-the art in both scholarly use of social media and altmetrics. The review consists of two main parts: the first examines the use of social media in academia, examining the various functions these platforms have in the scholarly communication process and the factors that affect this use. The second part reviews empirical studies of altmetrics, discussing the various interpretations of altmetrics, data collection and methodological limitations, and differences according to platform. The review ends with a critical discussion of the implications of this transformation in the scholarly communication system

E-visibility of environmental sciences researchers at the University of South Africa

Abstract : Research e-visibility in theory enables a researcher to establish and maintain a digital research portfolio utilising various research e-profiles on a number of research online communities and platforms. E-visibility embodies the online presence of the researcher and their research, researcher’s discoverability via research e-profiles and the accessibility of research output on online research communities. The rationale for this study has its foundation in the premise that enhancing the e-visibility of a researcher will increase the research and societal impact of the researcher. The development of an e-visibility strategy for the School of Environmental Sciences (SES) at the University of South Africa (Unisa) would be instrumental in enhancing the e-visibility of the researchers. This study aims at establishing guidelines for the development of an e-visibility strategy for SES researchers at Unisa as part of research support via the Library services. Altmetric and bibliometric data of the SES researchers, were collected during the 2-year period (December 2014 and December 2017) and e-visibility surveys were conducted at the beginning of the study (December 2014) and at the end of the study (April 2017) as part of a longitudinal e-visibility study. The data was analysed using statistical methods to ascertain: 1) the SES researchers e-visibility status, 2) the SES researchers’ perceptions about e-visibility, 3) the altmetric-bibliometric correlations (relationships) from the altmetrics sourced from the academic social networking tools and the bibliometrics derived from the citation resources, and 4) identifying e-visibility practices and actions increasing research and societal impact. The results reflected a total increase in online presence, discoverability, and accessibility therefore indicating an overall increase in the actual and perceived e-visibility of the SES researchers. The survey conducted at the end of the study, found that 73% of the SES researchers indicating that their e-visibility increased with online presence being enhanced, 69% were more discoverable and 76% of their research output was more accessible after applying what they learnt during the e-visibility awareness and training...Ph.D. (Information Management

Atención altmétrica y citación en publicaciones sobre ansiedad bibliotecaria indizadas en Scopus

Analiza la citación y atención altmétrica en las publicaciones sobre ansiedad bibliotecaria, para describir y determinar la relación entre bibliometría y altmetría en dicha área de la bibliotecología. La investigación siguió un enfoque cuantitativo, con alcance descriptivo y correlacional. La muestra correspondió a 147 publicaciones sobre ansiedad bibliotecaria indizadas en Scopus hasta 2021. Para el análisis descriptivo, se usaron las herramientas VOSviewer, CitNetExplorer y Altmetric Bookmarklet, y para el análisis correlacional se usó el programa PSPP. Los principales resultados muestran que los artículos más citados fueron los de Gross y Latham, Onwuegbuzie y Jiao. Asimismo, se distinguió las publicaciones nucleares en el tema a lo largo de los años. También se encontró que pocos artículos cuentan con el dato de atención altmétrica. Respecto al análisis de correlación, se encontró que las variables citación y atención altmétrica tienen una baja relación. Por lo tanto, se concluyó que 1) el análisis de citación permite distinguir los autores y publicaciones más relevantes en el tema de la ansiedad bibliotecaria, 2) el análisis de atención altmétrica permite conocer el desenvolvimiento de las publicaciones en el entorno de la web social y 3) no se encontró evidencia que relacione significativamente las variables analizadas; sin embargo, por la descripción hecha, se afirma que el análisis de citación se puede complementar con un análisis de tipo altmétrico

South African gender-based violence researchers’ awareness and usage of bibliometrics and altmetrics in the context of open access scholarly publishing

Philosophiae Doctor - PhDThe traditional model of scholarly communication uses journals, databases, and conferences. With the onset of the digital age, there has been a change in the system of scholarly communication, creating new publishing models, such as open access and institutional repositories, which have emerged as important, scholarly communication models. The research questions addressed in this study investigated the value of using altmetrics, as opposed to traditional metrics for measuring the impact of publications by researchers into gender-based violence (GBV) within South Africa