Introduction.

Alternative indicators based on web 2.0 have gained great relevance to measure the impact of scientific production. Positive correlations between traditional and alternative indicators have previously been shown. The objective of our article is to evaluate the relationship of these indicators in the field of surgery in our country.

Methods.

Retrospective analysis of the publications of the Colombian Journal of Surgery and tweets of the Twitter account (@ascolcirugia) during March 2020 and July 2021. Articles with and without tweets in the account @ascolcirugia were comparatively evaluated. The correlation between alternative indicators and traditional indicators of the journal’s publications was determined.

Results.

A total of 149 articles and 780 tweets were reviewed; only 13.4% (n=20) of the articles had visibility at the @ascolcirugia account, with a median of 2 tweets (RIQ 1-2) per article, most of which were on COVID-19 issues (85% vs 10%; p<0.001). The articles published at the @ascolcirugia account had a higher median number of downloads (220 vs 116; p<0.001) and citations (3.5 vs 0; p<0.001) compared to the articles that were not published.

Conclusions.

The use of social media has a positive effect on the number of readers of the Colombian Journal of Surgery and the academic impact of the authors. Although there is a good correlation between alternative and traditional indicators, in the national context, the proportion of articles of the Colombian Journal of Surgery published at the @ascolcirugia account is low.

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