Correlation Between Social Media Posts and Academic Citations of Orthopaedic Research

Abstract

Introduction: The objectives of this study were to quantify adoption of social media for the dissemination of original research in orthopaedic research and to determine the correlation between academic citations and social medial posts among recent orthopaedic publications. Methods: An Internet-based study was performed of 835 articles from three orthopaedic journals from 2018 to 2019. The number of academic citations for each article was determined using Google Scholar and Web of Science. The number of social media posts was determined using Twitter. The correlation between academic citations and social media posts was calculated using the Spearman rank correlation coefficient. Results: The average number of academic citations per article was 4.6 on Google Scholar and 2.6 on Web of Science. The average number of social media posts per article was 3.6, which consisted of 1.1 tweets and 2.5 retweets. The number of academic citations per article was weakly correlated with the number of social media posts, tweets, and retweets. Discussion: There is a positive relationship between social media posts and academic citations of recent orthopaedic research. Use of social media differs among journals and authors, which may represent opportunities to leverage social media platforms to more effectively dissemination novel research findings.

Correlation Between Altmetric Score and Traditional Bibliometrics in Total Joint Arthroplasty Research

“…A recent article similarly demonstrated that the Altmetric score of a publication demonstrated a significant, but weak positive correlation with the citation rate within orthopedic literature [ 12 ]. Similarly, Zhang and Earp describe the positive relationship between social media posts and academic citations in recent orthopedic research [ 13 ]. This suggests that the Altmetric score could potentially resemble a quantifiable assessment of the publication’s impact and its ability to garner attention within the scientific community [ 12 ].…”

“…The number of physicians using social media for professional purposes has reached upwards of 90%, allowing for sharing and dissemination of scientific literature [ 12 , 14 ]. In addition, many academic journals have adopted social media profiles to help share and distribute publications, contributing the ever-growing presence of social media in scientific literature [ 13 ].…”

“…Thus, the findings of the study could be confounded by the year of publication. However, Zhang and Earp describe that while number of academic citations tend to accrue over time, the temporal relationship was not demonstrated with social media posts in their study, describing the concept that social media dissemination of research occurs more rapidly after publication [ 13 ]. In recognition of these limitations, previously authors have suggested that it is important to consider Altmetrics as a complement, rather than a substitute, to traditional bibliometric measures [ 1 , 3 , 17 ].…”

Significance and implications of accurate and proper citations in clinical research studies

“…Literature reviews may also be influenced by other arbitrary factors. For example, an author's social media presence showed a positive correlation with the rate at which they were cited [ 22 , 23 ]. Another consideration for citation rate is the primacy effect, which describes how citations listed earlier in a study are used more frequently than those that appear toward the end of a study [ 24 ].…”

“…Solutions to many of these problems have been shared [ [15] , [16] , [17] , 22 , 23 ]. Authors can help others find their research by using targeted rather than generic keywords [ 17 ].…”