A Multiple Linear Regression Analysis to Measure the Journal Contribution to the Social Attention of Research

Abstract

This paper proposes a three-year average of social attention as a more reliable measure of the social impact of journals since the social attention of research can vary widely among scientific articles, even within the same journal. The proposed measure is used to evaluate a journal’s contribution to social attention in comparison to other bibliometric indicators. This study uses Dimensions as a data source and examines research articles from 76 disciplinary libraries and information science journals through multiple linear regression analysis. This study identifies socially influential journals whose contribution to social attention is twice that of scholarly impact, as measured by citations. In addition, this study finds that the number of authors and open access have a moderate effect on social attention, while the journal impact factor has a negative effect and funding has a small effect.