Objective. To determine the long-term change in the Altmetric Attention Score (AAS) and its components, as well as the impact of higher AAS on citation count for articles published in major pharmacy journals.Methods. This study evaluated articles from pharmacy journals ranked in the top 10% according to their AAS in the year 2017. Correlation between the AAS and number of citations (through November 2020) was assessed using the Spearman's correlation test. A Kruskal-Wallis 1-way analysis of variance was used to compare the AAS across journals.Results. The median three-year AAS and citation count per article was 20 (25th, 75th percentile=15, 28) and 11 (6, 18), respectively. Between November 2018 and November 2020, there was no significant change in the median AAS for the 137 included articles. The only change in the AAS components was an increase in the number of Mendeley readers (22 [13, 34]). The median number of citations per article also increased (8 [4, 14]). We found a significant association between the three-year AAS and the three-year number of citations. The three-year number of Mendeley readers was associated with an increase in the 3-year number of citations. The mean three-year AAS was highest with articles published in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, while the mean three-year number of citations was highest for articles published in PharmacotherapyConclusion. Higher AAS scores appear to be associated with the number of citations for articles published in major pharmacy journals within three years of publication.
Keywords: alternative metrics; bibliometrics; journal impact factor; pharmacy; publications.
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