Social media-based sleeping beauties: Defining, identifying and features

The sleeping beauties in science signify a unique knowledge diffusion trajectory created by citation after the publication of scientific literature. However, in social media, scientific knowledge creates a new diffusion trajectory through social media metrics such as View, Save, Discussed, and Recommendations. This study aims to define social media–based sleeping beauties S-SB in science by using social media metrics which we termed as citation-based Sleeping Beauties in science, C-SB. We constructed a quantitative method to identify S-SB and conducted an empirical study of all types of 4019 articles published in PLOS Biology. Comparison of the S-SB and C-SB results revealed that from the perspective of social media metrics, C-SB has become the literature of S-total elements early gradual awakening type, S-total elements delay gradual awakening type, and S-early sudden awakening type. Moreover, the awakening time of C-SB literature under the action of social media metrics was found to be 4–5 years earlier than that under the action of citation-based indicators. Both C-SB and S-SB included significant “Editorial Material,” establishing that “Editorial Material” type literature is noteworthy while promoting the diffusion of scientific knowledge. Overall, this study extends the perspective of sleeping beauties in science.