What effect do the ResearchGate writers’ altmetric scores have on scientometric indicators related to Qur’an in Scopus?

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to investigate the impact of ResearchGate (RG) scores on the scientific indicators of Qur’anic productions in Scopus. Design/methodology/approach This research is fundamental in method, created in a descriptive method and a scientometric approach. The statistical society includes 4,105 records produced by writers in the field of Qur’an during the time period of 2011–2020 indexed in the Scopus database. In this study, Pearson correlation coefficient test is used with aid of Excel and SPSS software. Findings Countries such as Malaysia, the USA and Indonesia, respectively, hold the highest number of scientific productions in the field of Qur’an. Iran holds the fourth place with a 544 record difference in comparison to Malaysia (866 documents). There is a positive and meaningful relation between measures of RG, readers, followers, citations and the H-index score regarding writers with received citations and the H-index score of scientific productions in the field of Qur’an in Scopus. However, no relation can be observed between the mentioned measures and indicators of the number of documents with cowriting. Research limitations/implications Because of some authors not using the same name in their articles, it was not possible to access their profile in RG. For this reason, the information of these authors was not accessible in RG. Practical implications The activity of researchers in social networks will receive feedback from readers. This will result in more citations. Contrary to expectations, the research results showed that Iran does not have a good position in publishing Qur’anic works. Therefore, researchers should publish their findings in international journals. Social implications Iranian writers should try to publish their scientific productions in international publications and also widely spread their content and research results across social networks to increase feedback and gain the attention of readers. This process leads to receiving reader feedback and publication of the Islamic teachings. Originality/value The relationship between the number of citations of Qur’anic works in Scopus and altmetric indicators in RG has not been investigated in previous researches. Therefore, this research is innovative in this field.