Research data management: a bibliometric and altmetric study based on Dimensions

Objective. This study aims to analyze the scientific production on research data management indexed in the Dimensions database. Design/Methodology/Approach. Using the term “research data management” in the Dimensions database, 677 articles were retrieved and analyzed employing bibliometric and altmetric indicators. The Altmetrics.com system was used to collect data from alternative virtual sources to measure the online attention received by the retrieved articles. Bibliometric networks from journals bibliographic coupling and keywords co-occurrence were generated using the VOSviewer software. Results/Discussion. Growth in scientific production over the period 1970-2021 was observed. The countries/regions with the highest rates of publications were the USA, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Among the most productive authors were Andrew Martin Cox, Stephen Pinfield, Marta Teperek, Mary Anne Kennan, and Amanda L. Whitmire. The most productive journals were the International Journal of Digital Curation, Journal of eScience Librarianship, and Data Science Journal, while the most representative research areas were Information and Computing Sciences, Information Systems, and Library and Information Studies. Conclusions. The multidisciplinarity in research data management was demonstrated by publications occurring in different fields of research, such as Information and Computing Sciences, Information Systems, Library and Information Studies, Medical and Health Sciences, and History and Archeology. About 60% of the publications had at least one citation, with a total of 3,598 citations found, featuring a growing academic impact. Originality/Value. This bibliometric and altmetric study allowed the analysis of the literature on research data management. The theme was investigated in the Dimensions database and analyzed using productivity, impact, and online attention indicators.

Altmetric Analysis of Skin of Color Articles: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background Publication and dissemination of peer-reviewed articles are essential for delivering up-to-date high-quality care to diverse populations. Online attention and publication trends for skin of color (SOC) articles have not been studied. Objective To investigate SOC article online attention and publication trends. Methods Terms “skin of colo(u)r”, “ethnic skin”, “dark skin”, and “darker skin” were searched on Altmetric. Abstracts were reviewed to exclude non-SOC articles. Altmetric attention score (AAS), media outlets, citations, page views, and journal impact factor were extracted. Results A total of 425 articles, published in 114 journals, were included, with average AAS 13 (0-423), citations 42 (0-1214) and page views 2728 (7-15000). There was a 7.8-fold increase in the number of SOC articles published in the first-half (1993-2006) vs. second-half (2007-2021) of the study period. The number of SOC articles increased by 57%, 2011-2015 to 2016-2020. AAS was significantly correlated with citations ( R = .21), page views ( R = .23) and impact factor ( R = .35) ( P < .05 for all). The top 50 AAS articles had an average AAS 83 (21-423), with 35 (70%) published in the last 5 years (2016-2021) and 47 (94%) published in the second-half of the study period. Top four AAS articles focused on SOC representation in educational resources. Conclusion It is promising that increased numbers of SOC articles have been published in recent years and are garnering more attention, however they are less popular than other dermatology articles. Increased efforts are needed to study and publish on skin diseases in diverse populations to build knowledge and practices that improve patient care.

Reflecting on the COVID-19 Surgical Literature Surge: A Scoping Review of Pandemic Otolaryngology Publications

Objective To assess the high-volume 2020 COVID-19-related surgical literature, with special attention to otolaryngology articles in regard to content, level of evidence, citations, and public attention. Study Design A scoping literature review was performed with PubMed and Web of Science, including articles pertaining to COVID-19 and surgical specialties (March 20–May 19, 2020) or otolaryngologic subspecialties (March 20–December 31, 2020). Setting Scoping literature review. Methods Otolaryngology-specific COVID-19-related articles were reviewed for publication date, county of origin, subspecialty, content, level of evidence, and Altmetric Attention Score (a weighted approximation of online attention received). Data were analyzed with Pearson correlation coefficients, analysis of variance, independent t tests, and univariable and logistic regressions. Results This review included 773 early COVID-19 surgical articles and 907 otolaryngology-specific COVID-19-related articles from 2020. Otolaryngology was the most represented surgical specialty within the early COVID-19-related surgical literature (30.4%). The otolaryngology-specific COVID-19 surgical literature responsively reflects the unique concerns within each otolaryngologic subspecialty. Although this literature was largely based on expert opinion (64.5%), articles with stronger levels of evidence received significantly more citations (on Web of Science and Google Scholar, P < .001 for both) and public attention (according to Altmetric Attention Scores, P < .001). Conclusion Despite concerns of a surge in underrefereed publications during the COVID-19 pandemic, our review of the surgical literature offers some degree of reassurance. Specifically, the COVID-19 otolaryngology literature responsively reflects the unique concerns and needs of the field, and more scholarly citations and greater online attention have been given to articles offering stronger levels of scientific evidence.

Assessing Factors Associated With Altmetric Attention Score: A Preliminary Study of 3 Hand Surgery Journals

Background Traditional measures of evaluating scholarly output do not capture the impact social media can provide in disseminating and promoting research. We sought to better understand the level of online attention that high-quality hand research received. Methods Scientific manuscripts published from 2017 in Journal of Hand Surgery (American Volume) ( JHS-A), Journal of Hand Surgery ( European Volume) ( JHS-E), and HAND were recorded. Manuscript characteristics were determined, including the number of citations. Altmetric Attention Score (AAS), a measure of a manuscript’s online attention and impact, was determined, as well as Twitter mentions, Facebook mentions, and news outlet mentions. Spearman rho (ρ) correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the relationship between the number of citations and AAS. Multivariable linear regression analysis was performed to determine which manuscript factors were associated with AAS. Results A total of 323 manuscripts were identified. There was a weak positive correlation between the number of citations and AAS; however, this relationship did not exist for each individual journal. Publication in HAND and JHS-E were associated with lower average manuscript AAS when using JHS-A as the reference group. Two additional factors were also associated with increased manuscript AAS: (1) being a clinical study focused on a specific upper extremity anatomical location; and (2) increasing number of institutions on a study. Conclusions Publication in HAND and JHS-E were associated with lower manuscript AAS when using JHS-A as the reference group, suggesting that HAND and JHS-E have room for improvement in using social media to share their high-quality hand surgery scientific articles.

The Online Attention to Cleft Lip and Palate Research: An Altmetric Analysis

Objectives: To identify research articles related to cleft lip and/or cleft palate (CL/P) that generated the highest online attention. Methods: Altmetric Explorer was used to identify the 100 articles with the highest Altmetric Attention Score (AAS). Descriptive and correlation statistics were performed to study the characteristics of these articles in relation to their publication data, research type and domain, number of Mendeley readers, and dimensions citations. Citation counts were extracted from Scopus and Google Scholar. Results: The median AAS for the top 100 outputs was 22 (range from 12 to 458). The outputs were mostly discussed on Twitter (median = 8; range = 0-131). Topics discussing treatment and care for patients with CL/P accounted for 38% of the articles with the highest AAS followed by etiology and risk factors (32%). The majority of articles originated from the USA (46%) followed by Europe (16%) and the United Kingdom (15%). No significant differences were observed in AAS among different study designs, topic domains, journals’ ranking and impact factor, and the number of citations in Scopus and Google Scholar. Conclusions: Researchers should consider use of social platforms to disseminate their work among scholars and nonscholars. Altmetrics can be combined with traditional metrics for a more comprehensive assessment of research impact.

Evolution of diversity and dominance of companies in online activity

Ever since the web began, the number of websites has been growing exponentially. These websites cover an ever-increasing range of online services that fill a variety of social and economic functions across a growing range of industries. Yet the networked nature of the web, combined with the economics of preferential attachment, increasing returns and global trade, suggest that over the long run a small number of competitive giants are likely to dominate each functional market segment, such as search, retail and social media. Here we perform a large scale longitudinal study to quantify the distribution of attention given in the online environment to competing organisations. In two large online social media datasets, containing more than 10 billion posts and spanning more than a decade, we tally the volume of external links posted towards the organisations’ main domain name as a proxy for the online attention they receive. We also use the Common Crawl dataset—which contains the linkage patterns between more than a billion different websites—to study the patterns of link concentration over the past three years across the entire web. Lastly, we showcase the linking between economic, financial and market data by exploring the relationships between online attention on social media and the growth in enterprise value in the electric carmaker Tesla. Our analysis shows that despite the fact that we observe consistent growth in all the macro indicators—the total amount of online attention, in the number of organisations with an online presence, and in the functions they perform—we also observe that a smaller number of organisations account for an ever-increasing proportion of total user attention, usually with one large player dominating each function. These results highlight how evolution of the online economy involves innovation, diversity, and then competitive dominance.

The Role of Conspiracy Theories in the Spread of COVID-19 across the United States

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) inspires various conspiracy theories, which could divert public attention, alter human behaviors, and consequently affect the spread of the pandemic. Here we estimate the relation of the online attention on COVID-19-related conspiracy theories to human mobility, as well as to the numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases, during 14 March 2020 to 28 Aug 2020. We observe that the online attention to COVID-19 conspiracy theories is significantly and negatively related to human mobility, but its negative impact is noticeably less than those of the attention to official information and personal protection measures. Since human mobility significantly promotes the spread of COVID-19, the attention to official information and personal protection measures lowers COVID-19 cases by 16.16% and 9.41%, respectively, while attention to conspiracy theories only reduces the COVID-19 cases by 6.65%. In addition, we find that in the states with higher online attention to COVID-19 conspiracy theories, the negative relation of the attention to conspiracy theories is much weaker than that in states where there is less concern about conspiracies. This study stresses the necessity of restricting the online transmission of unfounded conspiracy theories during a pandemic.