Correlation Between Altmetric Scores and Citation Count in 4 High-Impact Plastic Surgery Journals

Background The Altmetric Attention Score (AAS) aims to determine the impact of research articles throughout the internet and social media outlets. The AAS is a weighted average of the interaction on platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and more.Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the AAS and traditional bibliometrics across plastic surgery journals.Methods Articles, number of citations (NOC), and H-index information in Annals of Plastic Surgery (APS), Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (PRS), Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Global Open (PRS GO), and Aesthetic Surgery Journal (ASJ) from 2017, 2018, and 2019 were queried with the Scopus Online Tool. AAS metrics were collected with the Altmetric Score Calculator Bookmarklet. Descriptive statistics, Spearman rank-correlation analyses, and analyses of variance were performed to measure associations between NOC and AAS.Results A total of 3612 articles were analyzed. NOC was weakly correlated with AAS in APS, PRS GO, and ASJ, and moderately correlated with AAS in PRS. NOC was weakly correlated with Twitter mentions in APS, PRS GO, and ASJ, and moderately correlated in PRS. NOC was weakly correlated with news outlet reporting. The H-index of the first author showed more significant correlations with the AAS than the H-index of the last author.Conclusions NOC and H-index of the first author correlated with AAS in the plastic surgery literature, suggesting AAS may be a useful adjunct to traditional bibliometrics when evaluating the impact and reach of peer-reviewed articles.