Social Media Visibility

Social Media Visibility of Indian Research Output

The altmetrics (used for Alternative Metrics) have recently emerged as a popular measure of impact of research, in addition to the traditionally used measure of citations. Altmetrics aims to capture the social media activity around scientific research. Some studies have suggested that on an average, about 48% of Research output of the world gets some Social Media attention. In this context, the social media attention level for Indian Research Output during 2010-2019, has also been computed. It is observed that out of the total research output in 2010, 13.7% of the research output gets some social media attention. This level has continuously increased during the period, reaching to 25.2% in 2017 and settling down to 23.3% in 2019. The figure below shows the year-wise altmetric coverage percentage for the Indian Research output during 2010 - 2019 period.

Fig 8.1

Categories

  • Indian Research Output
  • Coverage and Mentions
  • Subject-area variations

    • Tag Cloud

    India Research Output Dimensions World Data Ranks Subjects

    Coverage and Mentions in different platforms

    The social media coverage and mentions per paper have also been analysed for certain selected platforms. In case of Twitter, the coverage percentage has increased from 2.84% in 2010 to 19.4% in 2019, with 6.20 average tweets per paper. The figure below shows the year-wise coverage percentage of the research in Twitter.



    Fig 8.2

    In case of Mendeley, the coverage percentage has increased from 13.5% in 2010 to 24.84% in 2017 and finally reaching 22.8% in 2019, with 41.33 average mentions per paper. The figure below shows the year-wise coverage percentage of the research in Mendeley.

    Fig 8.4

    In case of Facebook, the coverage percentage has increased from 1.19% in 2010 to 4.14% in 2015, before settling down at 2.75% in 2019, with 1.94 average mentions per paper. The figure below shows the year-wise coverage percentage of the research in Facebook.

    Fig 8.3

    Subject area-wise variations in social media coverage

    The social media coverage of a research output in different subject areas vary significantly, ranging from coverage percentage of 40.18% for Biological Sciences, to 9.47% in Information & Computing Sciences. The coverage variations are also seen for different platforms, with varied values of coverage percentage and average mentions per paper. The table below shows the overall as well as platform-wise coverage percentage and average mentions per paper.

    Subject Altmetric Coverage Twitter Coverage Average Tweets per paper Facebook Coverage Average Facebook mentions per paper Mendeley Coverage Average Mendeley mentions per paper
    06 Biological Sciences 40.18 29.67 6.2 5.68 1.89 39.95 48.61
    05 Environmental Sciences 34.01 23.37 9.02 5.81 1.92 33.65 75.15
    11 Medical and Health Sciences 31.32 21.61 7.97 6.29 2.19 30.93 44.01
    16 Studies In Human Society 31.19 22.42 7.9 5.54 1.91 30.28 50.79
    02 Physical Sciences 30.73 21.6 3.64 3.76 1.61 29.85 24.18
    07 Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences 30.34 19.03 5.38 4.17 2.09 30.21 58.33
    22 Philosophy and Religious Studies 28.34 20.44 6.77 5.25 1.23 26.36 28.98
    04 Earth Sciences 27.47 16.43 9 3.54 1.78 27.26 45.8
    21 History and Archaeology 27.18 18.64 12.07 7.22 3.24 25.04 19.75
    18 Law and Legal Studies 26.48 19.57 16.97 3.24 2.4 23.55 24.48
    03 Chemical Sciences 25.71 17.25 2.34 2.03 1.46 25.39 31.79
    17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences 25.54 17.3 7.74 6.19 1.73 25.17 46.88
    12 Built Environment and Design 25.25 14.62 4.83 3.07 1.13 24.85 71.48
    19 Studies In Creative Arts and Writing 24.6 16.56 4.83 4.34 1.26 23.63 19.29
    14 Economics 21.64 13.15 6.65 3.07 1.49 21.07 48.74
    15 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services 19.91 12.09 4.88 2.77 1.61 19.57 88.85
    13 Education 17.81 12.54 5.59 3.62 1.45 17.54 38.91
    20 Language, Communication and Culture 16.65 10.88 7.74 3.28 1.35 15.57 26.98
    01 Mathematical Sciences 16.28 10.56 4.75 1.75 1.39 15.48 22.59
    09 Engineering 14.27 7.3 2.76 1.25 1.43 14.13 46.46
    10 Technology 11.1 5.25 3.59 1.09 2.51 10.95 42.18
    08 Information and Computing Sciences 9.47 4.02 12.05 0.81 1.32 9.34 42

    Note: The above analysis/outputs are generated by the use of data obtained from Dimensions and Altmetric (a part of Digital Science).