What kinds of research are cited quickly in policy documents? Results from an exploratory study

This exploratory study set out to determine the citation lag for articles indexed in Altmetric Explorer that have been cited at least once in public policy documents. Articles identified as having a large volume of online attention (n=116) are compared to a random sample of articles that have any online attention (n=116) to understand if articles with greater overall online exposure might be cited any earlier than other articles. Attention as it occurs in specific Altmetric score-dependent sources like Twitter and mainstream media is examined, and Mendeley reader counts, which do not factor into the Altmetric score, are also compared across the two samples to identify differences. Document characteristics such as assignment of PubMed ID and Web of Knowledge-identified Research Domain and Document Type are also compared.