Comparison of attention for malnutrition research on social media versus academia: Altmetric score analysis

• Published in: Nutrition (Burbank, Los Angeles County, Calif.) Los Angeles County, Calif.), 2021-02, Vol.82, p.111060-111060, Article 111060
• Main Authors: Suzan, Veysel, Unal, Damla
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Altmetric; Bibliometric; Bibliometrics; Body weight; Child; Children; Citation; Citation analysis; COVID-19; Digital media; Hirsch index; Humans; Income; Informetrics; Keywords; Malnutrition; Nutrition; Nutritional Sciences - statistics & numerical data; Overweight; Periodicals as Topic - statistics & numerical data; Science; Scientific papers; Social Media - statistics & numerical data; Social networks; Undernutrition; Websites
• ISSN: 0899-9007; 1873-1244
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nut.2020.111060

In this study, we aimed to provide bibliometric and Altmetric overviews and visualization and to evaluate the correlation between traditional bibliometric and Altmetric analyses in the field of malnutrition. Articles published in the past decade were identified by searching for the term “malnutrition” on the Web of Science indexing database and research platform. The top 50 cited articles were analyzed in terms of title, study type, topic of study, first author, publication year, citation number, keywords, organizations, average citations per year, journal H index, impact factor, and Altmetric attention score. Also, the top 50 Altmetric articles published in the past decade about malnutrition were provided on the website Altmetric.com. Among the top 50 cited articles, the most common study type, topic of study, publication year, and keyword were, respectively, original scientific paper (n = 26), definition-diagnosis of malnutrition (n = 17), 2010 (n = 13), and malnutrition (n = 18). The article titled “Maternal and child undernutrition and overweight in low-income and middle-income countries” in Lancet had the highest citation number, and the article “Impacts of COVID-19 on childhood malnutrition and nutrition-related mortality” in Lancet had the highest Altmetric score. Evaluating academic publications with an Altmeric analysis in addition to a traditional bibliometric analysis is beneficial because Altmetric attention scores can give information about what the population wants to know about malnutrition and allows us to develop appropriate policies. •Unlike citation-based, traditional, bibliometric analyses, Altmetric analyses reveal discussions and sharing through social media.•In both the top 50 cited articles and the top 50 Altmetric articles, the prominent subject was malnutrition in children.•There was a statistically significant positive correlation between Altmetric attention score and citation number in the top 50 cited articles; however, there was no significant correlation between altmetric attention score and citation number in the top 50 Altmetric articles.•Our article provides rapid and direct access to tendencies related to topics and up-to-date information.