Correlation between Altmetric Scores and Citation Count in Four High-Impact Plastic Surgery Journals

Goals/Purpose: The Altmetric Attention Score (AAS) has emerged as a metric to determine the impact of research articles throughout the internet and various social media outlets. The objective of this study is to determine the relationship between AAS and traditional bibliometrics across plastic surgery journals.

Methods/Technique: Articles, Number of Citations (NOC), and H-index information in Annals of Plastic Surgery (APS), Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (PRS), Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Global Open (PRS GO), and Aesthetic Surgery Journal (ASJ) from 2017, 2018, and 2019 were queried using Scopus Online Tool. AAS metrics were collected using the Altmetric Score Calculator Bookmarklet. Descriptive statistics, Spearman rank correlation analyses, and ANOVA tests were performed to measure associations between NOC and AAS.

Results/Complications: A total of 3,612 articles were analyzed between 2017 and 2019. NOC was weakly correlated with AAS in APS (r=0.27, p<0.05), PRS GO (r=0.25, p<0.05), and ASJ (r=0.34, p<0.05), and moderately correlated with AAS in PRS (r=0.50, p<0.05). NOC was weakly correlated with Twitter mentions in APS (r=0.22, p<0.05), PRS GO (r=0.21, p<0.05), and ASJ (r=0.29, p<0.05), and moderately correlated in PRS (r=0.49, p<0.05). NOC was weakly correlated with News Outlet Reporting (APS: r=0.12, p<0.05, PRS: 0.15, r<0.05, PRS GO: r=0.14, p<0.05, ASJ: r=0.17, p<0.05). The H-index of the first author showed more significant correlations with the AAS compared to the H-index of the last author.

Conclusion: NOC and H-index of the first author correlated with AAS in the plastic surgery literature. This suggests that AAS may be a useful adjunct to traditional bibliometrics when evaluating the impact and reach of peer reviewed articles.