Altmetrics and their relationship with citation counts: a case of journal articles in physics
Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication
ISSN: 2514-9342
Article publication date: 17 January 2022
Issue publication date: 19 May 2023
Abstract
Purpose
The first purpose of the present study is to investigate the coverage of journal articles in Physics in various sources of altmetrics. Secondly, the study investigates the relationship between altmetrics and citations. Finally, the study also investigates whether the relationship between citations and altmetrics was stronger or weaker for those articles that had been mentioned at least once in the sources of altmetrics.
Design/methodology/approach
The journal articles in Physics having at least one author from an Indian Institution and published during 2014–2018 in sources of altmetrics have been investigated. Altmetric.com was used for collecting altmetrics data. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient (ρ) has been used as the data found to be skewed.
Findings
The highest coverage was found on Twitter (22.68%), followed by Facebook (3.62%) and blogs (2.18%). The coverage in the rest of the sources was less than 1%. The average Twitter mentions for journal articles tweeted at least once was found to be 4 (3.99) and for Facebook mentions, it was found to be 1.48. Correlations between Twitter mentions–citations and Facebook mentions–citation were found to be statistically significant but low to weak positive.
Research limitations/implications
The study concludes that due to the low coverage of journal articles, altmetrics should be used cautiously for research evaluation keeping in mind the disciplinary differences. The study also suggests that altmetrics can function as complementary to citation-based metrics.
Originality/value
The study is one of the first large scale altmetrics studies dealing with research in Physics. Also, Indian research has not been attended to in the altmetrics literature and the present study shall fill that void.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments: The authors are thankful to Altmetric.com for providing the data through their Altmetric Researcher Data Access Program. Special thanks to Ms Stacy Konkiel, Director of Research Relations for her help and assistance from time to time.
Citation
Shrivastava, R. and Mahajan, P. (2023), "Altmetrics and their relationship with citation counts: a case of journal articles in physics", Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication, Vol. 72 No. 4/5, pp. 391-407. https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-07-2021-0122
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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