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Altmetric scores: An early indicator of research impact

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  • Jenny Wooldridge
  • Mike B. King

Abstract

In this article we test whether metrics of online attention describing research can provide information on research quality and societal impact that is not found in citation data alone. Our approach is to set up a traditional model in which the true quality or impact of a university department is determined by a panel of experts, but a citation metric is regarded as a reasonable proxy. However, the model assumes that the information contained in the scores provided by an expert panel exceeds that contained in a citation metric (HEFCE, 2015). Finally, we extend this model by including altmetric data to see if it adds information about a department's performance that cannot be gleaned from citations alone. We find the presence of altmetric data for the cited underpinning research to be highly correlated with peer review scores for societal impact. Conversely, no such connection was seen with the assessment of research quality. Our findings therefore suggest altmetric data could be useful as an aid to assessing impact.

Suggested Citation

  • Jenny Wooldridge & Mike B. King, 2019. "Altmetric scores: An early indicator of research impact," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 70(3), pages 271-282, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jinfst:v:70:y:2019:i:3:p:271-282
    DOI: 10.1002/asi.24122
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    Cited by:

    1. Yu, Houqiang & Li, Longfei & Cao, Xueting & Chen, Tao, 2022. "Exploring country's preference over news mentions to academic papers," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(4).
    2. Akella, Akhil Pandey & Alhoori, Hamed & Kondamudi, Pavan Ravikanth & Freeman, Cole & Zhou, Haiming, 2021. "Early indicators of scientific impact: Predicting citations with altmetrics," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2).
    3. Zhang, Xinyuan & Xie, Qing & Song, Min, 2021. "Measuring the impact of novelty, bibliometric, and academic-network factors on citation count using a neural network," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2).
    4. Ana-Beatriz Hernández-Lara & Maria-Victoria Sánchez-Rebull & Angels Niñerola, 2021. "Six Sigma in Health Literature, What Matters?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-13, August.
    5. Houqiang Yu & Xinyun Yu & Xueting Cao, 2022. "How accurate are news mentions of scholarly output? A content analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(7), pages 4075-4096, July.
    6. Dotti, Nicola Francesco & Walczyk, Julia, 2022. "What is the societal impact of university research? A policy-oriented review to map approaches, identify monitoring methods and success factors," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).

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