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Twitter and Citations

Author

Listed:
  • Ho Fai Chan

    (Queensland University of Technology)

  • Ali Sina Önder

    (University of Portsmouth)

  • Sascha Schweitzer

    (Reutlingen University)

  • Benno Torgler

    (Queensland University of Technology)

Abstract

Social media, especially Twitter, plays an increasingly important role among researchers in showcasing and promoting their research. Does Twitter affect academic citations? Making use of Twitter activity about columns published on VoxEU, a renowned online platform for economists, we develop an instrumental variable strategy to show that Twitter activity about a research paper has a causal effect on the number of citations that this paper will receive. We find that the existence of at least one tweet, as opposed to none, leads to 16-25% more citations. Doubling the overall Twitter engagement generates up to 16% more citations.

Suggested Citation

  • Ho Fai Chan & Ali Sina Önder & Sascha Schweitzer & Benno Torgler, 2023. "Twitter and Citations," Working Papers in Economics & Finance 2023-04, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth Business School, Economics and Finance Subject Group.
    • Handle: RePEc:pbs:ecofin:2023-04
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    File URL: http://repec.port.ac.uk/EconFinance/PBSEconFin_2023_04.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. José Luis Ortega, 2016. "To be or not to be on Twitter, and its relationship with the tweeting and citation of research papers," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(2), pages 1353-1364, November.
    2. Chan, Ho Fai & Bodiuzzman, Sohel Md & Torgler, Benno, 2020. "The power of social cues in the battle for attention: Evidence from an online platform for scholarly commentary," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(4).
    3. Cassidy R. Sugimoto & Sam Work & Vincent Larivière & Stefanie Haustein, 2017. "Scholarly use of social media and altmetrics: A review of the literature," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 68(9), pages 2037-2062, September.
    4. Zhichao Fang & Rodrigo Costas & Paul Wouters, 2022. "User engagement with scholarly tweets of scientific papers: a large-scale and cross-disciplinary analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(8), pages 4523-4546, August.
    5. Kalaitzidakis, P. & Mamuneas, T.P. & Stengos, T., 2003. "Rankings of Academic Journals and Institutions," Working Papers 2003-8, University of Guelph, Department of Economics and Finance.
    6. Pantelis Kalaitzidakis & Theofanis P. Mamuneas & Thanasis Stengos, 2003. "Rankings of Academic Journals and Institutions in Economics," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 1(6), pages 1346-1366, December.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Productivity; Social Media; Twitter; Citations; Economists;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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