Do Highly-Cited Articles from Iran in the Field of Medical Sciences Attract High Attentions in Social Media?

The present study aimed to investigate the presence and attentions received by Iranian highly-cited articles in the field of medical science, in various social media platforms.
This descriptive and analytical survey was conducted using scientometrics and altmetrics indicators. The study population comprised of 1288 highly-cited papers from Iran in Essential Science Indicators (ESI) database during 2007-2016. In addition to Essential Science Indicators, Web of Science and Altmetric Explorer database were utilized for data gathering, too.
0.27% of the total publications from Iran in the field of medical sciences were among highly-cited papers (top 1% with the highest number of citations). Moreover, Iranian researchers contributed in 0.28% of world highly-cited papers in the field of medical sciences. 85.5% of Iranian highly-cited papers were mentioned at least once in social media platforms. Mendeley and Twitter were the most promising altmetrics sources for Iranian highly-cited papers in the field of medical sciences. Investigating the characteristics of highly-mentioned articles showed that they had similar publishing patterns. All five highly-alted papers in social media, were produced through international research collaboration, had more than 10 authors, and were published in the Lancet journal.
Comparing to other subject categories, the altmetrics coverage of highly-cited papers in the field of medical sciences was in an acceptable level. Considering the positive and statistical significant association between the number of citations received by papers and their altmetrics scores, we can conclude that highly-cited papers from Iran in the field of medical sciences attract high attentions in social media as well.