C. S. Collins1, N. P. Singh1, S. Ananthasekar1, C. J. Boyd1, T. W. King2 1University Of Alabama at Birmingham,School Of Medicine,Birmingham, Alabama, USA 2University Of Alabama at Birmingham,Department Of Surgery, Division Of Plastic Surgery,Birmingham, Alabama, USA
Introduction: Clinicians and researchers across medicine are turning to online platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, and blog posts to share their research. The Altmetric Attention Score (AAS) is a quantitative and fluid measurement of the online influence of research. The objective of this study is to determine if AAS of articles correlates with traditional bibliometrics such a journal impact factor and citation count in the Orthopaedic Surgery literature.
Methods: The 10 most cited articles from each of the 15 Orthopaedic Surgery journals with the highest impact factor in 2014 and 2017 were reviewed. For each article, the AAS was collected using the Altmetric Bookmarklet application and number of citations was recorded from SCOPUS. Journal impact factor was recorded from Journal Citation Reports. Statistical analysis was completed using descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlation coefficient in Microsoft Excel.
Results: A total of 300 articles published in either 2014 or 2017 were analyzed. A significant weak positive correlation was found between citation count and AAS for 2014 (r = 0.2802, p = 0.0014) while there was no correlation found for 2017 (r = 0.0202, p = 0.8138) (Figure 1). There was a no significant correlation between impact factor and AAS in either 2014 ( r = 0.0700, p = 0.8041) or in 2017 (r = 0.0701, p = 0.8015) (Figure 2).
Conclusion: A possible correlation between AAS with citations and impact factor may be seen in the Orthopaedic Surgery literature. Articles published in 2014 had longer online exposure, possibly explaining the lack of correlation seen between the AAS and citations for 2017 articles. However, at this point in time AAS and traditional bibliometrics are not strongly correlated with one another in the Orthopaedic Surgery literature. Citations take years to accumulate while AAS provides an immediate evaluation of the scholarly impact of an article. An amalgamation of traditional bibliometrics including citation count and impact factor, and AAS may prove useful in determining the short and long term impact of publications in Orthopaedic Surgery.
