Correlation between Altmetric Attention Scores and citation scores across the high impact-factor journals each in Medicine, Surgery, and Anaesthesia

Background: Citation scores (CS) are traditionally used to measure the impact of scientific publications. Altmetric Attention Scores (AAS), in contrast, consider the digital dissemination of articles across social media platforms to track their audience reach. In this cross-sectional study, we aimed to determine the correlation between AAS and CS in 12 high-impact-factor journals in the category of 'Clinical Medicine'.

Methods: The 12 journals with the highest 2023 journal impact factor (published in June 2024), four each in General and Internal Medicine, General Surgery, and Anaesthesia, were included. Articles published in final version between January 1 and December 31, 2021 were selected, and up-to-date AAS and CS for each article were obtained on July 2, 2024 from Dimensions (https://app.dimensions.ai/discover/publication). Spearman's rank order correlations (ϱ) were used to assess the strength of the association between AAS and CS.

Results: A total of 5193 outputs (2747 in Medicine, 1345 in Surgery, and 1101 in Anaesthesia) were analysed, with median (interquartile range) AAS and CS of 37 (10-157) and 16 (6-52), respectively. Medicine journals had the highest AAS and CS (124 [47-384] and 28 [8-113]), followed by Anaesthesia (12 [5-27] and 12 [5-24]) and Surgery (9 [2-24] and 11 [4-27]), respectively. There was a moderate positive correlation between AAS and CS overall (ϱ=0.589), with a moderate correlation for Medicine (ϱ=0.681) and Anaesthesia (ϱ=0.427) and a weak correlation for Surgery (ϱ=0.354) (all P<0.0001).

Conclusions: Altmetric Attention Scores correlated with citation scores, suggesting that audience engagement via social media can influence the future impact of publications and their citation scores.