Exploring the relationship between traditional bibliometrics and Altmetric scores in the primary care literature

There is some evidence that Altmetric scores correlate with citations in medical research, but this is not consistent across different specialties. No previous studies have examined the association between Altmetric score and citations amongst primary care research journals. The aim of this study was therefore to describe this association. We identified the ten most frequently cited articles published in the top 15 highest impact factor primary care research journals. Article and journal metrics were extracted and summarized using descriptive statistics. We used Spearman's correlation coefficient (r_s) and log–log linear regression modelling to examine the relationship between citations and Altmetric score. 150 articles were included with a median of 36.5 (IQR 20–59; range 5–811) citations. We found a positive association between citations and Altmetric score (r_s = 0.519; p < 0.001). A unit increase in log Altmetric score was associated with increased log citations [0.175 (95% CI 0.091–0.259, p < 0.001)] in an adjusted linear regression model. The regression findings indicate that increasing Altmetric score by 10% was associated with a 1.68% increase in citation rate. This has implications for how authors, academic institutions and primary care research journals approach dissemination of articles.