Are papers addressing certain diseases perceived where these diseases are prevalent? The proposal to use Twitter data as social-spatial sensors

Abstract

We propose to use Twitter data as social-spatial sensors. This study deals with the question whether research papers on certain diseases are perceived by people in regions (worldwide) that are especially concerned by these diseases. Since (some) Twitter data contain location information, it is possible to spatially map the activity of Twitter users referring to certain papers (e.g., dealing with tuberculosis). The resulting maps reveal whether heavy activity on Twitter is correlated with large numbers of people having certain diseases. In this study, we focus on tuberculosis, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and malaria, since the World Health Organization ranks these diseases as the top three causes of death worldwide by a single infectious agent. The results of the social-spatial Twitter maps (and additionally performed regression models) reveal the usefulness of the proposed sensor approach. One receives an impression of how research papers on the diseases have been perceived by people in regions that are especially concerned by these diseases. Our study demonstrates a promising approach for using Twitter data for research evaluation purposes beyond simple counting of tweets.

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A call for governments to pause Twitter censorship: a cross-sectional study using Twitter data as social-spatial sensors of COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2 research diffusion

“…(29) Each COVID-19 publication has been tweeted on average 425 times, which is significantly higher than our previous work analyzing Twitter activity of single infectious diseases (on average publications related to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) were tweeted 7 times, tuberculosis were tweeted 8 times, and malaria tweeted 9 times). (7)…”

“…In this way tweets can be used as social-spatial sensors to demonstrate how research diffuses within a population. (7)…”

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