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If I tweet will you cite? The effect of social media exposure of articles on downloads and citations

Author

Listed:
  • Thomy Tonia

    (University of Bern)

  • Herman Van Oyen

    (Public Health and Surveillance, Scientific Institute of Public Health)

  • Anke Berger

    (University of Bern)

  • Christian Schindler

    (Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute
    University of Basel)

  • Nino Künzli

    (Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute
    University of Basel)

Abstract

Objectives We sought to investigate whether exposing scientific papers to social media (SM) has an effect on article downloads and citations. Methods We randomized all International Journal of Public Health (IJPH) original articles published between December 2012 and December 2014 to SM exposure (blog post, Twitter and Facebook) or no exposure at three different time points after first online publication. Results 130 papers (SM exposure = 65, control = 65) were randomized. The number of downloads did not differ significantly between groups (p = 0.60) nor did the number of citations (p = 0.88). Adjusting for length of observation and paper’s geographical origin did not change these results. There was no difference in the number of downloads and citations between the SM exposure and control group when we stratified for open access status. The number of downloads and number of citations were significantly correlated in both groups. Conclusions SM exposure did not have a significant effect on traditional impact metrics, such as downloads and citations. However, other metrics may measure the added value that social media might offer to a scientific journal, such as wider dissemination.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomy Tonia & Herman Van Oyen & Anke Berger & Christian Schindler & Nino Künzli, 2016. "If I tweet will you cite? The effect of social media exposure of articles on downloads and citations," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 61(4), pages 513-520, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ijphth:v:61:y:2016:i:4:d:10.1007_s00038-016-0831-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s00038-016-0831-y
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Thomy Tonia, 2014. "Social media in public health: is it used and is it useful?," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 59(6), pages 889-891, December.
    2. Stefanie Ringelhan & Jutta Wollersheim & Isabell M Welpe, 2015. "I Like, I Cite? Do Facebook Likes Predict the Impact of Scientific Work?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(8), pages 1-21, August.
    3. Xuemei Li & Mike Thelwall & Dean Giustini, 2012. "Validating online reference managers for scholarly impact measurement," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 91(2), pages 461-471, May.
    4. Stefanie Haustein & Isabella Peters & Cassidy R. Sugimoto & Mike Thelwall & Vincent Larivière, 2014. "Tweeting biomedicine: An analysis of tweets and citations in the biomedical literature," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 65(4), pages 656-669, April.
    5. Nino Künzli & Luca Crivelli & Dominique Sprumont & Sandra Nocera, 2015. "Does the Swiss School of Public Health exist?," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 60(8), pages 873-875, December.
    6. Xin Shuai & Alberto Pepe & Johan Bollen, 2012. "How the Scientific Community Reacts to Newly Submitted Preprints: Article Downloads, Twitter Mentions, and Citations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(11), pages 1-8, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Chan, Ho Fai & Önder, Ali Sina & Schweitzer, Sascha & Torgler, Benno, 2023. "Twitter and citations," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    2. Akella, Akhil Pandey & Alhoori, Hamed & Kondamudi, Pavan Ravikanth & Freeman, Cole & Zhou, Haiming, 2021. "Early indicators of scientific impact: Predicting citations with altmetrics," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2).
    3. Shahzad, Murtuza & Alhoori, Hamed & Freedman, Reva & Rahman, Shaikh Abdul, 2022. "Quantifying the online long-term interest in research," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2).
    4. Haunschild, Robin & Bornmann, Lutz, 2023. "Which papers cited which tweets? An exploratory analysis based on Scopus data," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2).
    5. Cao, Renmeng & Geng, Yu & Xu, Xiaoke & Wang, Xianwen, 2022. "How does duplicate tweeting boost social media exposure to scholarly articles?," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1).

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