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 social impact for 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. The study uses Dimensions as a data source and examines research articles from 76 disciplinary library and information science journals through multiple linear regression analysis. The study identifies socially influential journals whose contribution to social attention is twice that of scholarly impact as measured by citations. In addition, the study finds that the number of authors and open access have a moderate impact on social attention, while the journal impact factor has a negative impact and funding has a small impact.