Altmetrics Indicators of Articles Affiliated by Birjand University of Medical Sciences on the Scopus Database Using PlumX Tool: A Scientometric Study

Altmetrics indicators, to measure different aspects of an effect, was created in social media environments The purpose of the present study was to investigate the altmetrics indicators of Birjand University of Medical Sciences articles registered in Scopus database.

 This research was a descriptive-analytical one which was done by using a scientometric method and using altmetrics indicators. Data collection was performed on 16 July 2019 by searching the titles of articles in Birjand University of Medical Sciences individually in the Scopus database based on plumX indicators (use, acquisition, discussion, social media and citation) and extracted indicators for 2 weeks. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to analyze the data.

 of 911 retrieved articles, overal 89 percent were shared on social media at least once. The maximum frequency of the index belonged to the Reader parameter, which is a subset of the acquisition index. Birjand University of Medical Sciences articles received the most amount of attention in the Mendeley network. There was a significant relationship between the amount of citations of articles and the degree of acquisition (r = 0.286, sig = 0.000). There was no significant relationship between the amount of citations received in the Scopus database and the discussion index (r = -0.048, sig = 0.820).

 Altmetrics indicators or alternative metrics can be a suitable complement to citation analysis. Consideration of these indicators in the publication of articles by researchers can be effective in obtaining citation articles.