Interdisciplinary Approach in the Survey of Adaptation Level of Citation Indices and Normalized Altmetrics in Scientific Journal Rankings

The main objectives of the present study are to estimate the correlation between the ranking based on normalized altmetrics and citation indices, and to conduct interdisciplinary comparisons at the level of scientific journals.

With a quantitative approach, this research has used scientific methods and techniques such as analysis of web data, citation analysis, and data-based analysis of indicators.

The findings indicated that NJAM normalized altmetrics did not have any significant relation with citation indices (i.e., IF, SJR and SNIP). However, NJRM and NJCM normalized altmetrics had a significant positive relationship with citation indices (i.e., IF, SJR, SNIP). In addition, there was a significant correlation between disciplines, in ranking journals based on altmetrics (i.e., JAM, JRM and JCM). However, there was no significant difference between disciplines, in ranking journals based on normalized altmetrics (i.e., NJAM, NJRM and NJCM).

If we accept that various citation indices and altmetrics measure aspects of the quality of scientific journals, the observed significant positive correlations can be explained by referring to the stable quality of journals. Therefore, we can conclude that all altmetrics, except for JAM and NJAM, can be used for ranking scientific journals