Altmetrics-based sleeping beauties: necessity or just a supplement?

Jianhua Hou (), Hao Li () and Yang Zhang ()
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Jianhua Hou: Sun Yat-Sen University
Hao Li: Sun Yat-Sen University
Yang Zhang: Sun Yat-Sen University

Scientometrics, 2023, vol. 128, issue 10, No 5, 5477-5506

Abstract: Abstract With the rapid growth of social media, knowledge diffusion of scientific literature comprises not only citation trajectory but also dimension of societal impact. For special types of knowledge diffusion, especially Sleeping Beauties in Science (SBs), it is essential but not adequate to only use citation analysis to measure its trajectory. The impact and value of scientific literature can be fully revealed only by integrating the diffusion trajectory of citation and social media. This study focuses on identifying the possible problems in research on SBs and emphasizes the necessity of Altmetrics-based SB (A-SB) to solve them. Referring to the practice in our earlier study, we identified 7 A-SBs and 11 citation-based SBs (C-SB). The comparative analysis of interdisciplinary and impact between A-SB and C-SB revealed the likely defects in the traditional C-SB research on the measurement of impact in knowledge diffusion, the mining of potential mechanism, the explanation of scientific knowledge diffusion pathways and the discovery of some key scientific literature, and that A-SB plays a vital role in these aspects. In contrast to C-SB, A-SB also offers the possibility to explore pathways for the diffusion of scientific knowledge. Furthermore, a typical A-SB case analysis suggested that A-SB has a unique advantage in discovering some innovative research with potential value ahead.

Keywords: Sleeping beauty; Altmetrics; Citation analysis; Knowledge diffusion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s11192-023-04798-z

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