Tracking research coverage using Altmetric scores
“A few years ago, we decided to write a series of articles on the most important climate research papers that have been published. To explore which papers had made the biggest impact in the media, we started using Altmetric, a tool that captures and measures attention given to scholarly content online.
The resulting mini articles from this initiative became an annual feature that we revisit every January, analysing the Top 25 most talked about climate papers from the previous year.
Which research papers have the newspapers picked up? Which ones caused a storm on Twitter? It’s fascinating to look at which papers have truly made an impact, and why. Some rank highly because they cover a striking finding, while others have caused heated scientific debate, or may have even been discredited.”
“On a day-to-day basis, we use Altmetric to understand the reactions triggered by papers of interest, how this was reported, and whether it was reported accurately. If there is a paper we’re considering covering, we use the tool to check whether reputable outlets such as the BBC, the Guardian or the New York Times have already done so. If they haven’t, we take the time to share the research – or if they have featured it, we can focus our efforts elsewhere.
Recently, we’ve noticed there is now a vast volume of coverage on climate science available, and attention scores for climate research are also higher. In our 2016 analysis, the top paper scored 2,700 – in 2021, this score wouldn’t have been high enough to rank in the top 10.
We’ve also noticed that there is broader coverage, across a range of outlets, whereas only a couple of reputable newspapers would have covered climate research in the past. Mainstream media outlets have caught on to the fact that not only is climate change an important topic but also one that their readers want to hear about.”
Robert Sweeney, Science Editor at Carbon Brief