Fifty years of the Journal of Perinatal Medicine: an altmetric and bibliometric study

Abstract

Abstract Objectives To apply scientometric methodology to characterize influential articles in the Journal of Perinatal Medicine (JPM). Methods We performed a cross-sectional study of all JPM articles indexed in Clarivate Web of Science (WOS), NIH Open Citation Collection, and Altmetric Explorer databases (1973–2022). We identified articles cited ≥100 times in WOS and articles with highest Relative Citation Ratios (RCR, a metric of influence based on citations) and highest Altmetric Attention Scores (AAS, a metric of engagement with social media and public platforms). We performed descriptive analysis to characterize influential articles based on citation rates vs. highest AAS, and quantile regression with bootstrapping to estimate the median differences (95% confidence intervals). Results We identified 4095 JPM articles that were indexed in the WOS, of which 3,959 (96.7%) had RCRs and 939 (22.9%) had AASs. The study cohort included 34 articles cited ≥100 times and the 34 top-RCR and 34 top-AAS articles, representing 83 unique articles. These influential articles had median 67 citations (IQR 17–114), median RCR 3.4 (IQR 1.7–5.0), and median AAS 14 (IQR 3–28). The majority were observational studies and reviews. Compared to top-AAS articles, top-cited articles had higher median citations (117 [IQR 111–147] vs. 13 [IQR 5–62]; median difference 104.0, 95% CI 86.6–121.4) and citations per year (7.3 [IQR 4.9–10.6] vs. 2.3 [0.7–4.6]; median difference 5.5 [95% CI 3.1–7.9]). Results were similar for top-RCR vs. top-AAS articles. Conclusions We identified influential articles during 50 years of JPM, providing insight into the impact of the journal and providing a template for future studies of academic journals.