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Introducing the ‘alt-index’ for measuring the social visibility of scientific research

Author

Listed:
  • Saeed-Ul Hassan

    (Information Technology University)

  • Sehrish Iqbal

    (Information Technology University)

  • Naif R. Aljohani

    (King Abdulaziz University)

  • Salem Alelyani

    (King Khalid University
    King Khalid University)

  • Alesia Zuccala

    (University of Copenhagen)

Abstract

We propose a new metric called ‘alt-index’, which is analagous to the h-index, but uses altmetrics data to measure both the volume and social media activity of scientific literature. The dataset includes over 1.1 million papers and their associated altmetrics score. A correlation analysis of the h-index and alt-index is conducted at three different levels: field level, source (journal) level, and author level. Our results show a strong positive correlation between the two indexes across all levels. We conclude that the alt-index can be adopted to measure the social activity of publications in situations where there is agreement amongst various social media channels.

Suggested Citation

  • Saeed-Ul Hassan & Sehrish Iqbal & Naif R. Aljohani & Salem Alelyani & Alesia Zuccala, 2020. "Introducing the ‘alt-index’ for measuring the social visibility of scientific research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 123(3), pages 1407-1419, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:123:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s11192-020-03447-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-020-03447-z
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