Unwrap citation count, Altmetric Attention Score and Mendeley readership status of highly cited articles in the top-tier LIS journals

What is it about?

This paper examined citation count, Altmetric attention score (AAS), and Mendeley readership of the most cited articles published in the top-tier Library and Information Science (LIS) journals - The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Government Information Quarterly, and Library & Information Science Research. A total of 61 articles were analyzed. Results show that AAS and Mendeley readership are positively correlated with citation count, the correlation between Mendeley readership and citation count was stronger than AAS and citation count. Moreover, Librarians are dominant readers of the top-tier LIS journals, followed by social sciences, computer science, and arts and humanities professions. This study suggests that Mendeley readership and AAS could be used as supplemental measurements for assessing the impact of a publication or author in the Library and Information Science. This is the first study that presents the spectrum of AAS and Mendeley readership of the most cited articles published in top-tier of LIS journals. The study reveals an alternative way of measuring LIS publication’s impact factor that enables researchers, librarians, administrators, publishers, and other stakeholders in library and information science to assess the influence of a publication from another angle.

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