Measuring the social impact of contemporary dysphagia research: an altmetric analysis

Figures & data

Figure 1. The online platforms used to share, discuss, and engage in research. The online attention published material receives on these platforms is tracked, in real time, by Altmetric Explorer, to produce alternative metrics detailing the nature and extent of the online attention.

Figure 2. The Altmetric Donut – The sources monitored by Altmetric Explorer are listed in the above figure accompanied by their representative colour. To the right, the altmetric donut depicts the sources (colour of stripes) and the frequency of mentions (thickness of the stripes) with the altmetric attention score located in the centre of the donut.

Figure 3. Distribution of the year of publications for the 100 dysphagia articles with the highest altmetric attention scores analysed in this study.

Table 1. Characteristics of the top 10 journals which published the greatest number of articles in descending order.

Journal title	Mentioned outputs	AAS median (min/max)	Journal impact factor (for 2018)
Dysphagia	34	28 (19–203)	3.034
Stroke	7	29 (21–77)	6.046
Clinical Interventions in Ageing	5	36 (21–38)	2.585
BMC Cancer	4	28(19–29)	2.933
ASHA Leader	3	28(27–52)	0.1
Nature Reviews Gastroenterology and Hepatology	3	21(20–50)	23.57
International Journal of Speech Language Pathology	2	33(21–45)	1.28
American Journal of Speech Language Pathology	2	35.5 (29–42)	1.321
Diseases of the Oesophagus	2	52.5 (33–72)	2.323
BMC Geriatrics	2	119.5 (53–186)	2.818

Figure 4. Percentage breakdown of the study designs of the dysphagia articles with the top 100 altmetric attention scores selected for analysis in this study.

Figure 5. Percentage breakdown of the different clinical populations studied in the 100 dysphagia articles with the highest almetric attention scores selected for analysis in this study.

Table 2. ASS median and ranges obtained by altmetric studies in other healthcare disciplines. These scores provided a comparison for the results obtained in this study (AAS = Altmetric Attention Score).

Discipline	Median AAS	ASS ranges	Methodology	Journals Included
Dysphagia	29	19–317	Top 100 articles with highest AAS	Any journals with dysphagia articles
Nursing (Dardas et al., 2018)	248	138–649	Top 100 articles with highest AAS	Nursing journals only
Dentistry (Delli et al., 2017)	119	69–1307	Top 100 articles with highest AAS	Dental journals only
Orthodontics (Livas & Delli, 2018)	8	5–196	Top 200 articles with highest AAS	Orthodontic journals only
Stroke (Kim et al., 2019)	657	454–3215	Top 50 articles with highest AAS	Neurology journals only
Radiology (Rozenkrantz et al., 2017)	0	0–264	All radiology journals published in 2013	Radiology journals only
Oral Cancer (Hassona et al., 2019)	455	21–1307	Top 100 articles with highest AAS	Any journals with oral cancer articles

Table 3. Descriptive statistics for mentions per media platform for the articles analysed in the present study (statistics generated by Altmetric Explorer).

Source	Median mentions	Range	Total mentions	Percentage of articles with at least one mention
News mentions	10	0–38	193	34%
Blog mentions	0	0–2	23	20%
Policy statements	0	0–3	3	3%
Tweets	45	0–223	3916	99%
Peer review	0	–	0	–
Facebook	2	0–61	398	78%
Wikipedia	0	0–4	8	4%
Google+	0	0–3	18	13%
LinkedIn	0	–	0	–
Mendeley readers	44	0–331	5809	100%
CiteULike	0	0–1	3	3%
F100 mentions	0	0–1	1	1%
Reddit mentions	0	0–1	1	1%
Q & A threads	0	–	0	–
Videos	0	–	0	–
Syllabi mentions	0	–	0	–

Table 4. Articles in which news outlets contributed to the majority (minimum 50%) of their altmetric attention score (AAS).

Article title	AAS	Citation score	Access	Funding
Pharyngeal electrical stimulation for early decannulation in tracheotomised patients with neurogenic dysphagia after stroke (PHAST-TRAC): a prospective, single-blinded, randomized trial. (Dziewas et al., 2018)	318	11	Pay-for-Access	Funded
Volumetric Changes to the Pharynx in Healthy Aging: Consequence for Pharyngeal Swallow Mechanics and Function. (Molfenter, Lenell, & Lazarus, 2019)	203	6	Pay-for-Access	Funded
Assessing Hyolaryngeal Excursion: Comparing Quantitative Methods to Palpation at the Bedside and Visualization During Videofluoroscopy. (Brates, Molfenter, & Thibeault, 2019)	200	1	Pay-for-Access	Funded
Short-Term Effects of Cold Liquids on the Pharyngeal Swallow in Preterm Infants with Dysphagia: A Pilot Study. (Ferrara et al., 2018)	100	0	Pay-for-Access	No funding
Videofluoroscopic Validation of a Translational Murine Model of Presbyphagia. (Lever et al., 2015)	74	17	Pay-for-Access	Funded
An abuse-deterrent, microsphere-in-capsule formulation of extended-release oxycodone: alternative modes of administration to facilitate pain management in patients with dysphagia. (McCarberg et al., 2016)	73	8	Pay-for-Access	Funded
Economic and survival burden of dysphagia among inpatients in the United States. (Patel et al., 2017)	72	16	Pay-for-Access	No Funding
Dysphagia after Occipitocervical Fusion. (Hong & Lim, 2017)	60	9	Pay-for-Access	No funding
The Physiology of Eructation. (Lang, 2016)	60	5	Pay-for-Access	No Funding
Utility of Pulse Oximetry to Detect Aspiration: An Evidence-Based Systematic Review. (Britton et al., 2018)	53	3	Pay-for-Access	No funding
Effects of expiratory muscle strength training on oropharyngeal dysphagia in subacute stroke patients: a randomized controlled trial. (Park, Oh, Chang, & Kim, 2016)	48	20	Pay-for-Access	No Funding
The effects of a xanthan gum-based thickener on the swallowing function of patients with dysphagia. (Rofes, Arreola, Mukherjee, Swanson, & Clavé, 2014)	33	45	Open Access	Funded

Table 5. The three articles mentioned in policy during the selected study time frame (January 2014 to January 2019), including altmetric attention scores (AAS), citation data, access, and funding type.

Article title	Policy source	AAS	Citation data	Access	Funding
The effects of a xanthan gum-based thickener on the swallowing function of patients with dysphagia. (Rofes et al., 2014)	World Health Organisation (WHO)	33	45	Open Access	Funded
Survivors’ experiences of dysphagia-related services following head and neck cancer: Implications for clinical practice. (Nund et al., 2014)	The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, UK	30	26	Open Access	Not Funded
‘Wet Voice’ as a Predictor of Penetration and Aspiration in Oropharyngeal Dysphagia. (Warms & Richards, 2000)	ASHA Practice Policy	26	56	Pay-for-Access	Funded

Figure 6. Mentions received by the 100 dysphagia articles with the highest altmetric attention scores, from January 2014 to January 2019 grouped by online source of attention (see representative colours for each source below the graph). This figure highlights that Twitter contributes the greatest towards online mentions of dysphagia research within the selected study timeframe.

Table 6. The major geographic locations for online attention received by the top 100 articles (statistics generated by Altmetric Explorer).

Country	Total news stories	Total tweets	Total Facebook posts	Total policy documents
Country not specified	n/a	3817 (34.9%)	877(65.1%)	n/a
USA	172(66.9%)	2,183 (19.9%)	228(16.9%)	51(51.5%)
United Kingdom	20(7.8%)	1,976 (18%)	20(1.5%)	44(44.4%)
Australia	23(8.9%)	603 (5.5%)	10(0.7%)	0
Ireland	0	434 (4%)	0	0
Spain	1(0.4%)	391(3.6%)	5(0.4%)	0
Japan	0	353(3.2%)	0	0
Canada	1(0.4%)	203(1.9%)	91(6.8%)	0
Germany	4(1.6%)	85(0.8%)	1(0.1%)	1(1%)
New Zealand	7(2.7%)	63(0.6%)	13(1%)	1(1%)
Singapore	14(5.4%)	0	43(3.2%)	0
Finland	8(3.1%)	9(0.1%)	4(0.3%)	0

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