Journal of medical Internet research
-
J. Med. Internet Res. · Jan 2013
Correlation and interaction visualization of altmetric indicators extracted from scholarly social network activities: dimensions and structure.
Citation counts for peer-reviewed articles and the impact factor of journals have long been indicators of article importance or quality. In the Web 2.0 era, growing numbers of scholars are using scholarly social network tools to communicate scientific ideas with colleagues, thereby making traditional indicators less sufficient, immediate, and comprehensive. In these new situations, the altmetric indicators offer alternative measures that reflect the multidimensional nature of scholarly impact in an immediate, open, and individualized way. In this direction of research, some studies have demonstrated the correlation between altmetrics and traditional metrics with different samples. However, up to now, there has been relatively little research done on the dimension and interaction structure of altmetrics. ⋯ Altmetrics complement, and most correlate significantly with, traditional measures. Therefore, in future evaluations of the social impact of articles, we should consider not only traditional metrics but also active altmetrics. There may also be a transfer phenomenon for the social impact of academic articles. The impact transfer path has transfer, or intermediate, stations that transport and accelerate article social impact from active altmetrics to traditional metrics and vice versa. This discovery will be helpful to explain the impact transfer mechanism of articles in the Web 2.0 era. Hence, altmetrics are in fact superior to traditional filters for assessing scholarly impact in multiple dimensions and in terms of social structure.