The Online Attention to Otorhinolaryngology Research: An Altmetric Analysis (1967-2021)

As a new approach and complementary to traditional bibliometrics, altmetrics measures the influence of scientific research in social media tools and applications.

This study aimed at comprehensively analyzing research output in otorhinolaryngology research from its beginning in 1967 to 2021.

Using Scimago Journal Ranking (SJR), 107 otorhinolaryngology journals were retrieved. Of them, 84 journals with their 89044 papers as well as their altmetric scores were extracted from the Altmetric Explorer in 28 February 2022. The citation rates of the top ten papers having high altmetric scores were retrieved from Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science and Dimensions. Data were analyzed in excel.

67,529 otorhinolaryngology papers (75%) were mentioned 2,901,187 times in 17 different social media tools. The highest altmetric score of papers amounted to 3,989. The top-ranked media were Nendeley and Twitter, respectively. The USA was the first ranked country in Twitter and Facebook and the UK was such in News Outlet and Policy. The highest mentioned journal was JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery. The top affiliation in sharing papers was Harvard University with 1621 shared papers. All of the top 10 papers in altmetric scores were multi-authored original research articles..

As one of the first altmetric studies in otorhinolaryngology field, this study provided helpful information for potential authors, researchers, research institutes and journals in the field in increasing the reach and influence of their researches.