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Tweeting birds: online mentions predict future citations in ornithology

Overview of attention for article published in Royal Society Open Science, November 2017
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (98th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
1 news outlet
blogs
6 blogs
twitter
776 X users
facebook
7 Facebook pages
googleplus
1 Google+ user
reddit
1 Redditor
video
1 YouTube creator

Citations

dimensions_citation
36 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
94 Mendeley
citeulike
3 CiteULike
Title
Tweeting birds: online mentions predict future citations in ornithology
Published in
Royal Society Open Science, November 2017
DOI 10.1098/rsos.171371
Pubmed ID
Authors

Tom Finch, Nina O'Hanlon, Steve P. Dudley

Abstract

The rapid growth of online tools to communicate scientific research raises the important question of whether online attention is associated with citations in the scholarly literature. The Altmetric Attention Score (AAS) quantifies the attention received by a scientific publication on various online platforms including news, blogs and social media. It has been advanced as a rapid way of gauging the impact of a piece of research, both in terms of potential future scholarly citations and wider online engagement. Here, we explore variation in the AAS of 2677 research articles published in 10 ornithological journals between 2012 and 2016. On average, AAS increased sevenfold in just five years, primarily due to increased activity on Twitter which contributed 75% of the total score. For a subset of 878 articles published in 2014, including an additional 323 ornithology articles from non-specialist journals, an increase in AAS from 1 to 20 resulted in a predicted 112% increase in citation count from 2.6 to 5.5 citations per article. This effect interacted with journal impact factor, with weaker effects of AAS in higher impact factor journals. Our results suggest that altmetrics (or the online activity they measure), as well as complementing traditional measures of scholarly impact in ornithology such as citations, may also anticipate or even drive them.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 776 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 94 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 94 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 24 26%
Researcher 16 17%
Other 8 9%
Student > Bachelor 8 9%
Student > Master 6 6%
Other 16 17%
Unknown 16 17%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 26 28%
Social Sciences 12 13%
Environmental Science 8 9%
Computer Science 5 5%
Medicine and Dentistry 5 5%
Other 14 15%
Unknown 24 26%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 515. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 20 April 2023.
All research outputs
#49,837
of 25,587,485 outputs
Outputs from Royal Society Open Science
#107
of 4,807 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#1,006
of 341,380 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Royal Society Open Science
#3
of 156 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,587,485 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 4,807 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 51.9. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 341,380 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 156 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.