SynthesisJournal of medical Internet research2020
The Use of Social Media to Increase the Impact of Health Research: Systematic Review.
Synthesis in Journal of medical Internet research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 48 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
48 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Social media for palliative and end-of-life care research: a systematic review.BMJ supportive & palliative care · 2024Pooled it
- A randomized controlled trial of social media promotion in neurosurgical publishing.Neurosurgical review · 2024Trial
- How to use social media to amplify your professional impact in respiratory medicine.Breathe (Sheffield, England) · 2026Article
- The 20 most influential papers produced in the past decade by seven major spinal journals on both altmetric and bibliometric databases.Irish journal of medical science · 2026Article
- Social Media Discourse on Breast Cancer Screening Barriers in Japanese and English: Cross-Sectional Infodemiology Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Maximizing the Impact of Your Academic Scholarship: Strategies for Early Career Professionals.Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry · 2026Review
- The Impact of Social Media for Adult Reconstruction Surgeons: A Prevalence Study With Online and Academic Reputations.Arthroplasty today · 2026Article
- The publish or perish, publish and perish, publish then perish, and now retract and perish cultures in academia.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2026Article
- The gender gap in scholarly self-promotion on social media.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Instagram, a source of information and education about dental implants?Oral and maxillofacial surgery · 2025Article
- The impact of social media for shoulder surgeons: a prevalence and correlation study with online and academic presence.JSES international · 2025Article
- Knowledge of gym goers on myths and truths in resistance training.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Health promotion campaigns using social media: association rules mining and co-occurrence network analysis of Twitter hashtags.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Impact of a Fulbright award: A bibliometric analysis of persistence.Health SA = SA Gesondheid · 2025Article
- The Impact of Social Media for Hand Surgeons: A Prevalence and Correlation Study With Online and Academic Reputations.Journal of hand surgery global online · 2025Article
- Medical Media in Pediatric Gastroenterology and Hepatology: Strategies for Effective Use by Consumers, Contributors, and Creators.Current gastroenterology reports · 2024Review
- Social media impact on students' decision-making regarding aesthetic dental treatments based on cross-sectional survey data.Scientific reports · 2024Article
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- Promotion of a neurosurgical academic journal on social media: a 1-year experience.Acta neurochirurgica · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAcademics in all disciplines increasingly use social media to share their publications on the internet, reaching out to different audiences. In the last few years, specific indicators of social media impact have been developed (eg, Altmetrics), to complement traditional bibliometric indicators (eg, citation count and h-index). In health research, it is unclear whether social media impact also translates into research impact.
objectiveThe primary aim of this study was to systematically review the literature on the impact of using social media on the dissemination of health research. The secondary aim was to assess the correlation between Altmetrics and traditional citation-based metrics.
methodsWe conducted a systematic review to identify studies that evaluated the use of social media to disseminate research published in health-related journals. We specifically looked at studies that described experimental or correlational studies linking the use of social media with outcomes related to bibliometrics. We searched the Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE), Excerpta Medica dataBASE (EMBASE), and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) databases using a predefined search strategy (International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews: CRD42017057709). We conducted independent and duplicate study selection and data extraction. Given the heterogeneity of the included studies, we summarized the findings through a narrative synthesis.
resultsOf a total of 18,624 retrieved citations, we included 51 studies: 7 (14%) impact studies (answering the primary aim) and 44 (86%) correlational studies (answering the secondary aim). Impact studies reported mixed results with several limitations, including the use of interventions of inappropriately low intensity and short duration. The majority of correlational studies suggested a positive association between traditional bibliometrics and social media metrics (eg, number of mentions) in health research.
conclusionsWe have identified suggestive yet inconclusive evidence on the impact of using social media to increase the number of citations in health research. Further studies with better design are needed to assess the causal link between social media impact and bibliometrics.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.