Altmetrics analysis of selected articles in the field of social sciences

Date26 January 2022
Pages452-463
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-07-2021-0124
Published date26 January 2022
AuthorMehri Sedighi
Altmetrics analysis of selected
articles in the f‌ield of
social sciences
Mehri Sedighi
Iranian Research Institute for Information Science and
Technology (IranDoc), Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Purpose This study aims to measure the impact of the selected papers in the f‌ield of social sciences
indexed in Scopususing altmetrics tools.
Design/methodology/approach The research community consists of the articles of the Iranian
researchers in the f‌ield of social sciences indexed in the Scopus database in 20142018. Some of the most
important altmetric service providers have been used to assess the presence of the research outputs in the
social media and their impact assessment. Also, the relationship between variables such as scientif‌ic
collaboration of researchers,open access journals and the quality of research journals withaltmetric activity
have beeninvestigated through appropriate correlationtests.
Findings The f‌indings indicated that the most important social media publishing Iranian articles are
Mendeley, Twitterand Facebook. The results of the correlation test showed a statisticallysignif‌icant positive
and weak relationship between the scientif‌ic collaboration of researchers and their altmetric activity. Also,
there is a signif‌icant and weak statisticalrelation between journal openness and the altmetric scores. In this
study, the f‌indings suggest that the published articles in the journals with higher quality indicators have
higher altmetricscores and are more likely to be present in socialmedia.
Research implications In this study, the social networkindicators have been introduced as a solution
to examine the effectiveness of research activitieson social media. These indicators can be used to evaluate
the impact and usefulness of the articles and other scientif‌ic outputs with the aim of completing and
eliminating the shortcomings of traditional scientometrics indicators. What distinguishes altmetric criteria
from other criteriarelated to the scientometric studies is the speed, ease and transparency of thesescales. This
allows the publicationsto be evaluated regardless of their formal form and in theshortest possible time, and
in additiontothe scientif‌icimpact, the social impact of the works is also measured.
Originality/value The results of these studies show that using altmetric service providers not only
ref‌lects the social impact of publications on authors in different subject areas but also helps libraries,
universities,research organizations and politiciansinplanning,budgeting and allocating resources.
Keywords Altmetrics explorer, PlumX, Scopus, Social media, Social sciences, Research impact
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Because of the widespread use of social media in the scientif‌icf‌ields, new indicators called
altmetrics indices alongwith the traditional scientometrics concepts (citation analysis)have
been created to investigate the impact of research activities on social media (Priem
Corrigendum: It has come to the attention of the publisher that the article by Sedighi, M. (2023),
Altmetrics analysis of selected articles in the f‌ield of social sciences,Global Knowledge, Memory and
Communication, Vol. 72 No. 4/5, pp. 452-463. https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-07-2021-0124, was published
with an incorrect af‌f‌iliation. The correct af‌f‌iliation is Iranian Research Institute for Information Science
and Technology (IranDoc). This oversight has now been corrected in the online article.
GKMC
72,4/5
452
Received8 August 2021
Revised24 November 2021
Accepted20 December 2021
GlobalKnowledge, Memory and
Communication
Vol.72 No. 4/5, 2023
pp. 452-463
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2514-9342
DOI 10.1108/GKMC-07-2021-0124
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/2514-9342.htm

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