Citation indices for social media articles in urology

Abstract

ObjectiveTo evaluate the impact of publications on urological participation in social media (SoMe) by virtue of citations in the urological and non-urological literature. Materials and MethodsOn 15 March 2016, a PubMed search was undertaken using the names of the major SoMe platforms in current use and associated with the field of urology. The search term 'urolog*' was used to specifically capture articles that could be associated with 'urology', 'urologist' or 'urological'. Exclusion criteria for analysis included non-English language articles, articles published for the first time online in any form after 1 March 2015, articles irrelevant to the topic of SoMe, and letters of correspondence. Included articles were then searched in Google Scholar and citations analysed to determine if citations were from the urological literature or non-urological literature. Citations from non-urological journals were considered to be as such even if authored by urologists and on the subject of urology and SoMe. ResultsPrior to exclusions as defined in the methods, our PubMed search yielded 232 articles of which 17 were non-English language and 66 had been published after 1 March 2015. Allowing for 12 months after the most recent articles were published, we found that the mean number of total citations in any journal was 20.8. There were more citations in journals not specific to urology, with 8.3 citations in urological journals, compared to 12.6 citations in nonurological journals. ConclusionUrological SoMe journal articles are highly cited, particularly in the non-urological literature. It is likely that the magnitude of citations has positively contributed to the impact factors of the almost all journals publishing these manuscripts.

Assessment of the use of the Internet and social media among people with bladder cancer and their carers, and the quality of available patient‐centric online resources: a systematic review

“…Urology is regarded as a leading medical domain in which social media and the Internet have been embraced as means to share evidence ; however, understanding of urology among the general public remains limited and directly impacts the accurate dissemination of health information . Very little is known about the quality of patient‐centric online information related to BCa, and if and how patients with BCa and/or their carers access that information.…”

The Use of Social Media to Increase the Impact of Health Research: Systematic Review

“…The 44 correlational studies evaluated the relationship between Altmetrics and bibliometrics in a variety of health research fields and disciplines, covering generic medical or biomedical research disciplines [ 16 , 57 , 60 - 62 , 66 , 70 , 78 , 81 - 83 ], or more specific disease-related research fields, such as multiple sclerosis [ 43 ], neurological research [ 73 ], Parkinson disease [ 53 ], psoriasis [ 25 ], and sepsis [ 44 , 67 ]. Some articles covered clinical or dental medicine [ 64 , 65 , 75 ] and different kinds of surgery [ 59 , 68 , 77 ]; others focused on specialized branches of medicine, such as urology [ 34 , 38 , 39 , 58 ], radiology [ 76 ], and coloproctology [ 69 ].…”

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Prevalence of penile curvature: a population‐based cross‐sectional study in metropolitan and rural cities in Australia

“…The effect of penile curvature in patients is physical and has a significant adverse impact on psychosexual functioning, including body image, relationship dynamics and sexual function. The impact of social media such as tweet chats, health education portals and YouTube videos allows rapid dissemination of their content and engagement with readers/users in raising awareness, helping to destigmatize embarrassing medical conditions and recruiting patients to attend health checks and publicizing research . Given the high prevalence of penile curvature in Australia, there is a need to raise awareness and implement effective screening and treatment strategies.…”