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Do altmetrics work for assessing research quality?

Author

Listed:
  • Andrea Giovanni Nuzzolese

    (ISTC-CNR)

  • Paolo Ciancarini

    (University of Bologna)

  • Aldo Gangemi

    (University of Bologna)

  • Silvio Peroni

    (University of Bologna)

  • Francesco Poggi

    (University of Bologna)

  • Valentina Presutti

    (ISTC-CNR)

Abstract

Alternative metrics (aka altmetrics) are gaining increasing interest in the scientometrics community as they can capture both the volume and quality of attention that a research work receives online. Nevertheless, there is limited knowledge about their effectiveness as a mean for measuring the impact of research if compared to traditional citation-based indicators. This work aims at rigorously investigating if any correlation exists among indicators, either traditional (i.e. citation count and h-index) or alternative (i.e. altmetrics) and which of them may be effective for evaluating scholars. The study is based on the analysis of real data coming from the National Scientific Qualification procedure held in Italy by committees of peers on behalf of the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrea Giovanni Nuzzolese & Paolo Ciancarini & Aldo Gangemi & Silvio Peroni & Francesco Poggi & Valentina Presutti, 2019. "Do altmetrics work for assessing research quality?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 118(2), pages 539-562, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:118:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-018-2988-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-018-2988-z
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    15. Mike Thelwall & Kayvan Kousha, 2008. "Online presentations as a source of scientific impact? An analysis of PowerPoint files citing academic journals," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 59(5), pages 805-815, March.
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    2. Maria Cristiana Martini & Elvira Pelle & Francesco Poggi & Andrea Sciandra, 2022. "The role of citation networks to explain academic promotions: an empirical analysis of the Italian national scientific qualification," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(10), pages 5633-5659, October.
    3. Jianhua Hou & Xiucai Yang & Chaomei Chen, 2020. "Measuring researchers’ potential scholarly impact with structural variations: Four types of researchers in information science (1979–2018)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(6), pages 1-26, June.
    4. Sergio Copiello, 2020. "Other than detecting impact in advance, alternative metrics could act as early warning signs of retractions: tentative findings of a study into the papers retracted by PLoS ONE," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(3), pages 2449-2469, December.
    5. Jianhua Hou & Bili Zheng & Yang Zhang & Chaomei Chen, 2021. "How do Price medalists’ scholarly impact change before and after their awards?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(7), pages 5945-5981, July.
    6. Jianhua Hou & Xiucai Yang & Yang Zhang, 2023. "The effect of social media knowledge cascade: an analysis of scientific papers diffusion," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(9), pages 5169-5195, September.
    7. Jianhua Hou & Da Ma, 2020. "How the high-impact papers formed? A study using data from social media and citation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(3), pages 2597-2615, December.
    8. Silvio Peroni & Paolo Ciancarini & Aldo Gangemi & Andrea Giovanni Nuzzolese & Francesco Poggi & Valentina Presutti, 2020. "The practice of self-citations: a longitudinal study," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 123(1), pages 253-282, April.
    9. 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).
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    11. Federica Bologna & Angelo Iorio & Silvio Peroni & Francesco Poggi, 2023. "Do open citations give insights on the qualitative peer-review evaluation in research assessments? An analysis of the Italian National Scientific Qualification," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(1), pages 19-53, January.

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