Alternative Metrics Help Measure the Reach and Influence of Medical Journals

CLINICAL QUESTION

How do otolaryngology journals rank in terms of the amount of publicity received online, and what factors are associated with these rankings?

BOTTOM LINE

Metrics based on online attention provide an alternative way to assess the reach and influence of medical journals.

BACKGROUND: Dissemination of medical information is now predominantly electronic. Leveraging the ability to distribute information via the internet, many journals have also developed a social media presence. Therefore, when measuring journal influence, it is important to add alternative metrics that measure online attention to traditional metrics, which are based on scholarly citations.

STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study

SETTING: Michigan Ear Institute, Farmington Hills, Mich.

SYNOPSIS: Researchers recorded the latest available five-year Impact Factor scores (2022) for 43 identified journals. They then obtained the Altmetric Attention Score, based on measurements of online attention as indicated by the volume, source, and author of online mentions, for each published article from those 43 journals from 2018 to 2022 (n=26,112). Altmetric rankings were created from the top 500 articles with the highest scores, using a rank-sum weight-based method. The association of article content, study design, and type, and social media presence on X (formerly Twitter) with ranking was examined. Results showed JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery with the highest Altmetric journal ranking. Most articles in the top 500 were non-operative clinical studies (43.5%) or described the natural history of disease (34.9%) and involved otology/neurotology (29.9%) or rhinology/allergy (25.4%). The presence of an active X account for the five-year period was associated with a higher Altmetric total rank sum score. The correlation between Altmetric and five-year Impact Factor ranking was moderately statistically significant, although it is uncertain if the relationship between bibliometrics and Altmetric scores is causal. Study limitations included the outsized influence of the COVID-19 epidemic during the study period.

CITATION: Hong RS, et al. Online attention to articles published in otolaryngology journals. JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2025;151:344-350. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaoto.2024.5251.