Analysis of Altmetrics in Social Recognition of Neurology and Neurological Disorders

This study used Altmetric analysis to rank neurological articles and assessed the implications in relation to the social recognition of neurology and neurological disorders. An Altmetric Explorer search was conducted on 25 May 2018 for articles published in the 91 journals included in the 2015 InCites™ Journal Citation Report(®). We identified and analyzed the 100 articles with the highest Altmetric Attention Scores (AASs). A major proportion of the social impact (high AASs) was focused on neurodegenerative disorders such as dementia and neurodegenerative disorders. About half of the high-ranking articles provided academic information such as disease information (29 articles, 29%), new or advanced treatments (17%), and side effects of treatment (8%). The journal with largest number of top 100 articles was the New England Journal of Medicine (29 articles). Some of the data gathered via altmetrics can change a field of study, the public’s health, or a larger society. This is the first report on the impact of academic articles in neurological disorder on the general public living in our altered information society.