- The paper quantifies altmetric mentions, showing that X consistently outperforms Bluesky across multidisciplinary journals.
- It uses data from 10,174 publications in 2024 to reveal significant increases in Bluesky activity, especially in November.
- The findings suggest that political shifts and platform functionality drive changes in scholarly communication, urging updated altmetric tracking.
Comparative Analysis of Altmetric Mentions Across X and Bluesky
The paper "Are There Stars in Bluesky?" by Arroyo-Machado, Robinson-Garcia, and Torres-Salinas provides a thorough investigation into the migration of research dissemination from the platform X (formerly Twitter) to Bluesky and its impact, specifically through the lens of altmetrics. Utilizing data from 10,174 publications from 2024, the paper offers valuable insights into evolving patterns of scientific communication across these platforms.
The research is motivated by a significant shift in platform preferences following political changes, notably the return of Donald Trump as U.S. President and Elon Musk's continued influence over X. These shifts have ostensibly driven researchers to seek alternative platforms for scholarly interaction, with Bluesky emerging as a notable competitor. Significantly, this paper focuses on the quantification of altmetric mentions for selected multidisciplinary and Library and Information Science (LIS) journals, providing a comparative analysis of the data captured on both X and Bluesky.
Key Findings
The findings reveal a marked increase in Bluesky activity for multidisciplinary journals, particularly in November 2024, with mentions doubling or quadrupling for journals such as Nature and Science. Despite this growth, the overall engagement on Bluesky remains substantially lower than on X. Specifically, X dominates the altmetric landscape with significantly higher mention statistics, an average of 148.49 accounts for Nature compared to 4.86 on Bluesky. Similarly, for Science, the average is 103.68 on X versus 9.42 on Bluesky.
For LIS journals, the adoption of Bluesky is less pronounced, with considerable variations across journals. For instance, Scientometrics sees a sharp decline from 17.21 average accounts on X to 2.09 on Bluesky, while the Journal of Informetrics drops from 5.04 to 1.57. This disparity underlines the discipline-specific adoption patterns, indicating that Bluesky's traction varies significantly across different fields of research.
Implications and Future Directions
The paper postulates several implications of these findings, both practical and theoretical. Practically, the observed migration could influence how scholarly communication is assessed, necessitating adaptations in altmetrics tracking methods to accommodate evolving platforms. The choice of Altmetric to include Bluesky underscores its potential as an emerging venue for scientific dissemination, albeit currently less effective compared to X.
Theoretically, the paper raises questions about the dynamics of social media platforms in academic communities. The user migration to Bluesky may suggest a shift in user preference, driven not only by political contexts but also perhaps by functionality and community interactions. The disparity in uptake across journals indicates varying levels of platform affinity, potentially leading to diverse scholarly communities on different platforms.
This paper opens prospects for further research into how different academic disciplines adopt new platforms and the resultant impact on altmetrics. Additionally, the formation and dynamics of new online communities pose intriguing questions about the continued relevance and effectiveness of current altmetrics. Subsequent investigations could explore these aspects in more depth, considering the rapid evolution of digital communication platforms.
In summary, while Bluesky shows potential as a future hub for scientific discussion, current evidence underscores the dominance of X in the altmetric arena. This paper contributes a nuanced understanding of the transitional phase in academic communication as researchers navigate and adapt to emerging online ecosystems.
