International Journal of Information Science and Management (IJISM)

Analyzing the Impacts of COVID-19 Vaccine Research Outputs: An Altmetric Approach

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Masoomeh Latifi 1
Forough Rahimi 2
Nader Alishan Karami 3

1 Scientometric Unit, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran

2 Information Management Research Unit, Islamic World Science and Technology Monitoring and Citation Institute (ISC), Shiraz, Iran.

3 Department of Health Information Technology, Faculty of Para-Medicine, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences. Bandar Abbas, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22034/ijism.2024.2016537.1316
Abstract
 
This study aimed to investigate the attention given to scientific outputs about COVID-19 vaccines worldwide on social media. It utilized scientometrics and altmetrics indicators. A dataset with 12,364 works indexed in the WOS database from 2020 to 2022 was analyzed. Altmetric Scores (AS) and Altmetrics were extracted from Altmetric Explorer. Data analysis was performed using Access, Excel, and SPSS software. The retrieved articles garnered attention on 13 social media platforms.  The highest amount of social attention, accounting for 97% of the total, was related to X (Twitter) and Mendeley. The highest AS (43,765) was for an open-access article entitled "Covid-19: Researcher blows the whistle on data integrity issues in Pfizer's vaccine trial: Video 1" in the BMJ cited in 14 social media. The most productive countries in COVID-19 vaccine research were the USA, England, and China, while Harvard University, the University of London, and the University of California emerged as the most active research institutes. The findings confirmed a significant, moderate, and positive correlation between the AS and most Altmetrics with the number of citations. Additionally, a positive, substantial, and moderate correlation was observed between citations, the AS of highly-cited papers, and the AS of hot documents. Considering the positive impact of social media on increasing the chance of receiving more citations for articles and improving the impact range of articles from academic users to social users, the activities of researchers in social media are effective in increasing the visibility of scientific works.
 
 

Keywords

COVID-19 Vaccine
Research Outputs
Altmetrics
Altmetrics Score
Social Media

Subjects

 
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International Journal of Information Science and Management (IJISM)
Volume 22, Issue 4
Autumn 2024
Pages 39-55

  • Receive Date 26 November 2023
  • Revise Date 28 September 2024
  • Accept Date 28 September 2024

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