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Context of altmetrics data matters: an investigation of count type and user category

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  • Houqiang Yu

    (Wuhan University
    Wuhan University)

Abstract

Context of altmetrics data is essential for further understanding value of altmetrics beyond raw counts. Mainly two facets of context are explored, the count type which reflects user’s multiple altmetrics behaviors and user category which reflects part of user’s background. Based on 5.18 records provided by Altmetric.com, both descriptive statistics and t test result show significant difference between number of posts (NP) and number of unique users (NUU). For several altmetrics indicators, NP has moderate to low correlation with NUU. User category is found to have huge impact on altmetrics count. Analysis of twitter user category shows the general tweet distribution is strongly influenced by the public user. Tweets from research user are more correlated with citations than any other user categories. Moreover, disciplinary difference exists for different user categories.

Suggested Citation

  • Houqiang Yu, 2017. "Context of altmetrics data matters: an investigation of count type and user category," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(1), pages 267-283, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:111:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-017-2251-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-017-2251-z
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    Cited by:

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