وضعیت نمایه‌سازی اخبار رسانه‌های خبری ایران در پایگاه دگرسنجی «آلتمتریک»

Purpose: Science journalists can play a significant role in evaluating the social impact and "altmetric" score of research published in scientific journals through their coverage in news media. This requires the indexing of news articles in altmetric databases. The present study aims to investigate the performance of Iranian science journalists in the Altmetric.com database by examining indexed news articles from Iranian news media.
Methodology: The necessary data for conducting this research were collected in two main stages from three databases: 'Altmetric.com,' 'JCR,' and 'Scopus.' In the first stage, a dataset containing 2972 news articles mentioning research outputs from Iranian news media was downloaded from 'Altmetric.com.' the impact factor of journals mentioned in the news articles was extracted from the 'JCR' database.finally, the list of DOIs of research articles mentioned in the news, available in the downloaded file from the previous stage, was combined using the OR operator, and a search was performed in the advanced search section of 'Scopus.'"
Findings: The research results show that the content published in eight Iranian news outlets, including Fars News Agency, Iran Daily, ISNA, Tehran Times, Financial Tribune, Goya News, Tasnim, and IRNA, are indexed in the altmetrics.com database, constituting approximately 0.1% of the media coverage in this indexing platform. A total of 2,972 news articles from Iranian media are indexed in the altmetrics.com database. An examination of the types of sources covered reveals that Iranian news media have primarily extracted and published information from scientific journal articles (2,790 articles, or 93.88%). An analysis of the thematic coverage of the news sources shows that out of 2,777 categorized publications, nearly one-third are related to medical and health sciences (884 publications, or 31.83%). An analysis of the list of sources from which most articles in Iranian news media are reflected indicates that science journalists in Iran prefer to select topics from multidisciplinary sources. Journals such as Science and Nature are at the forefront of Iranian news sources. An analysis of the organizational affiliation of articles mentioned in the news reveals that out of a total of 2,687 articles, 198 articles (equivalent to 0.07%) were authored by researchers from Iranian universities. Science journalists in the country predominantly reflect articles with affiliations to the United States, and among Iranian universities, the University of Tehran's researchers received the most coverage in the news. An examination of the data linked to the publication dates of news articles reflected in Iranian media in the altmetrics.com database shows that the highest number of indexed news articles (624 articles, equivalent to 21%) were published in the year 2019. The trend of indexing news from Iranian media in the altmetrics.com database has seen a decline since the year 2020.
Conclusion: The declining trend in the indexing of Iranian news media in the alt-metrics.com database over the past three years indicates that science journalists should pay more attention to research findings published in reputable scientific articles and journals when reporting science news. On the other hand, the manner of writing and covering news should be such that it can be easily identified and displayed in databases like altmetrics.com and similar indexing platforms. The current state of performance of journalists and news media suggests that a significant number of news articles refer to research findings published in scientific journals (2790 articles, or 93.88%). It's important to note that scientific articles are not limited to journals; they are also published in conferences and even sections of books. Science journalists need to be aware of these diverse sources. It appears that science journalists should have a clear understanding of science and not limit their definition of science to specific fields like medicine. However, it's important to consider the interests of the public as readers of these news articles, and topics that are appealing to them should be reflected in scientific news. Therefore, a science journalist must strike a balance between the value of the news source and the existing demand for it. The research find-ings in the section on the level of news mention to domestic research indicate that despite the high volume of scientific production in Iran, these publications have had very minimal coverage in the news media. The reasons for this phenomenon can be examined from two perspectives. Firstly, the findings indicate that scientific publications from the United States have had the most signifi-cant coverage in Iranian news media, which may be an indication of the dominance of translation in science journalism. In this way, the findings of research from other countries, as covered by recognized news outlets like CNN or BBC, are translated and published by Iranian science journalists. Secondly, the weak connection between universities and academics as producers of science and the news media, for various reasons, leads to a lack of awareness among science journalists about the trends in domestic research.