Does increasing the Altmetric score increase citations for primary care research papers?

Dr Alex Burrell

 

 

By Dr Alex Burrell, NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in General Practice, Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol

Dr Alex Burrell has led a study exploring the relationship between Altmetric scores and citations in primary care research journals as part of his Editorial Fellowship at the British Journal of General Practice (BJGP) and BJGP Open.

The number of times a research article is cited has traditionally been used to assess its impact and quality. Altmetric score is an alternative measure of article impact which assesses the broader societal impact of articles and includes social media, blogs, and news mentions.

Number of citations, and other measures which are based on citation count, are still most often used by researchers and universities, and are tied to financial rewards. However, academic journals and authors increasingly use parts of the Altmetric score to share and promote research.

If Altmetric … Read more

Developing academic writing skills for researchers with English as a second language

 

 

by Beatriz Kalichman, Researcher, University of São Paulo, Brazil and Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol, UK

Beatriz Kalichman, an early career researcher (ECR) on the Healthcare Responding to Violence and Abuse (HERA) international research project at the University of São Paulo and, honorarily, at the Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol, reflects on the National Institute for Health Research (NIIHR)-funded writing workshop, ‘Writing for Global Health: developing academics of the future’, in Summer 2021. The workshop was co-developed by ECRs and delivered by the University of Bristol’s Centre for Academic Language and Development.

Academic English writing is very important for career progression and was identified as an issue that ECRs on the HERA project who don’t have English as a first language wanted to work on. HERA, funded by the Medical Research Council Global Challenges Research Fund and NIHR Global Health … Read more

Are online GP consultations the solution to increasing patient access to health care, while reducing GP workloads?

 

 

by Dr Jeremy Horwood and Professor Chris Salisbury, Centre for Academic Primary Care and NIHR CLAHRC West

NHS England’s long-term plan released on 7 January sets out a commitment that over the next five years every patient will get the right to telephone or online GP consultation as part of its ‘digital first primary care offer‘.

Online consultations are seen as a solution to improve patient access to primary care, increase convenience (saving time waiting and travelling) and reduce face-to-face appointments, freeing up GP time. But our research has found that unless these systems are carefully implemented, the benefits policy makers are hoping for in relation to reductions in GP workload and increases in available appointments for patients might not be realised.

The Centre for Academic Primary Care-led Alt-Con study examined how a variety of technological alternatives to face-to-face GP consultations were being used in … Read more