Observational studyInternational journal of public health2020
If I tweet will you cite later? Follow-up on the effect of social media exposure on article downloads and citations.
Observational study in International journal of public health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Does social media promotion influence citation counts? A long-term follow-up to a randomised trial in a general neurosurgical journal.Neurosurgical review · 2025Trial
- A randomized controlled trial of social media promotion in neurosurgical publishing.Neurosurgical review · 2024Trial
- Connecting through ISEV's developing social media landscape.Journal of extracellular vesicles · 2024Article
- Open Access Publication in Total Ankle Arthroplasty Literature Is Associated With Increased Social Media Attention, but Not Increased Citations.Foot & ankle orthopaedics · 2024Article
- Article
- Social media for cardiovascular journals: State of the art review.American heart journal plus : cardiology research and practice · 2021Article
- Social media in surgery: evolving role in research communication and beyond.Langenbeck's archives of surgery · 2021Review
- The impact of Twitter promotion on future citation rates: The #TweetTheJournal study.International journal of cardiology. Heart & vasculature · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesWe previously reported that random assignment of scientific articles to a social media exposure intervention did not have an effect on article downloads and citations. In this paper, we investigate whether longer observation time after exposure to a social media intervention has altered the previously reported results.
methodsFor articles published in the International Journal of Public Health between December 2012 and December 2014, we updated article download and citation data for a minimum of 24-month follow-up. We re-analysed the effect of social media exposure on article downloads and citations.
resultsThere was no difference between intervention and control group in terms of downloads (p = 0.72) and citations (p= 0.30) for all papers and when we stratified by open access status.
conclusionsLonger observation time did not increase the relative differences in the numbers of downloads and citations between papers in the social media intervention group and papers in the control group. Traditional impact metrics based on citations, such as impact factor, may not capture the added value of social media for scientific publications.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.