Research Preprint: How Many Scientific Papers Are Mentioned In Policy-Related Documents? An Empirical Investigation Using Web of Science and Altmetric Data

The following preprint was recently shared on arXiv.

Title

How Many Scientific Papers Are Mentioned In Policy-Related Documents? An Empirical Investigation Using Web Of Science and Altmetric Data

Authors

Robin Haunschild
Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research

Lutz Bornmann
Division for Science and Innovation Studies, Administrative Headquarters of the Max Planck Society

Source
via arXiv

Abstract

In this short communication, we provide an overview of a relatively newly provided source of altmetrics data which could possibly be used for societal impact measurements in scientometrics. Recently, Altmetric – a start-up providing publication level metrics – started to make data for publications available which have been mentioned in policy-related documents. Using data from Altmetric, we study how many papers indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) are mentioned in policy-related documents. We find that less than 0.5% of the papers published in different subject categories are mentioned at least once in policy-related documents. Based on our results, we recommend that the analysis of (WoS) publications with at least one policy-related mention is repeated regularly (annually). Mentions in policy-related documents should not be used for impact measurement until new policy-related sites are tracked.

Direct to Full Text Article (14 pages; PDF)