Could the Altmetric Score Be an Alternative Approach to Traditional Bibliometrics for Evaluating Influential Articles in Pediatric Robotic Surgery?

Traditional bibliometrics have been used to estimate the scientific impact of research across various fields. However, citation analysis is not without limitations. With the rapid development of social media, the Altmetric score has become popular for evaluating scientific work. This study aimed to determine whether the Altmetric score could replace traditional bibliometrics for assessing influential papers in pediatric robotic surgery.

The Web of Science database was searched for the 50 top‐cited publications in pediatric robotic surgery, and the characteristics of each article were recorded and identified. Conventional bibliometric variables included the citation count and impact factor (IF) of the publishing journal. The Altmetric score database was used to identify the Altmetric score and details for each article. Statistical analysis, including Spearman's correlation coefficients, was performed using Microsoft Excel and GraphPad PRISM.

The top 50 publications with the most citations were obtained and analyzed. A significant negative relationship was identified between the impact index and the Altmetric score (r = −0.42, p < 0.01, R² = 0.18), and no correlations were observed for the number of citations (r = −0.12, p = 0.40, R² = 0.01) and IF (r = −0.09, p = 0.53, R² = 0.01). X/Twitter (68%) was the most popular social media source for Altmetric score details.

This study did not identify a statistically significant correlation between Altmetric scores and conventional bibliometric variables in the 50 top‐cited publications. Furthermore, the Altmetric score is susceptible to manipulation because its calculation mechanism is unknown. Thus, the Altmetric score does not currently deliver an alternative approach to traditional bibliometrics. A combination of traditional bibliometrics and the Altmetric score can provide a more comprehensive method for evaluating influential articles in pediatric robotic surgery.