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Do Social Media Science Stars Get Citation Premium?

Author

Listed:
  • Christian Lessmann

    (Dresden University of Technology)

  • Ali Sina Önder

    (University of Portsmouth)

Abstract

We analyze whether the social media popularity of scientists affects the number of academic citations. We use the COVID-19 global pandemic as a quasi-natural experiment exogenously increasing public attention and the demand for expertise. Using social media stars’ and their coauthors’ publications on COVID-related topics prior to the break out of the pandemic, we find that the social media star status added 1.10 citations following the breakout of COVID-19 per year per article, corresponding to 80% of the pre-COVID citation gap between stars and their coauthors. We find no significant treatment effect based on scientists’ Kardashian indexes.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Lessmann & Ali Sina Önder, 2023. "Do Social Media Science Stars Get Citation Premium?," Working Papers in Economics & Finance 2023-09, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth Business School, Economics and Finance Subject Group.
    • Handle: RePEc:pbs:ecofin:2023-09
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    File URL: http://repec.port.ac.uk/EconFinance/PBSEconFin_2023_09.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. repec:plo:pone00:0234912 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. 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.
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    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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