Skewness distribution of four key altmetric indicators: an in-progress analysis across 22 fields in a national context

First of all, it should be mentioned that although this study uses a large sample of scientific publications (a total of 237,232), they are all Spanish publications. Therefore, the results may not be extrapolated. Recent studies show that altmetric indicators may have different patterns depending on the country. Countries such as Spain, France and Germany may have different altmetric patterns to Anglo-Saxon countries. However, various findings have been demonstrated that can be extrapolated to all contexts regardless of their specific features. Each altmetric indicator has its own pattern of asymmetry and is not the same in all scientific areas. The values are very different depending on the area and the indicator. Another important aspect pointed out by the study is that, compared to citations, the distributions of altmetric indicators are always less skewed and less pronounced. It also seems that citations are more similar to Twitter mentions. This paper is useful to provide a general mapping by indicator and area of the phenomenon of asymmetry in the world of altmetrics. It may be of use when establishing the field validity of certain indicators or when using statistical indicators such as averages. It will also help to decide whether it is necessary to introduce standardisation procedures for indicators such as those used by Costas and Bornmam and Leydesdorff. This work will be continued in the future using the complete Altmetric.com database and introducing a larger number of altmetric indicators