The Association Between Professional Accounts on Social Networks Twitter and ResearchGate and the Number of Scientific Publications and Citations Among Anesthesia Researchers: Observational Study

Abstract

Background Social networks are now essential tools for promoting research and researchers. However, there is no study investigating the link between presence or not on professional social networks and scientific publication or citation for a given researcher. Objective The objective of this study was to study the link between professional presence on social networks and scientific publications/citations among anesthesia researchers. Methods We included all the French full professors and associate professors of anesthesia. We analyzed their presence on the social networks Twitter (professional account with ≥1 tweet over the 6 previous months) and ResearchGate. We extracted their bibliometric parameters for the 2016-2020 period via the Web of Science Core Collection (Clarivate Analytics) database in the Science Citation Index-Expanded index. Results A total of 162 researchers were analyzed; 42 (25.9%) had an active Twitter account and 110 (67.9%) a ResearchGate account. There was no difference between associate professors and full professors regarding active presence on Twitter (8/23 [35%] vs. 34/139 [24.5%], respectively; P=.31) or ResearchGate (15/23 [65%] vs. 95/139 [68.3%], respectively; P=.81). Researchers with an active Twitter account (median [IQR]) had more scientific publications (45 [28-61] vs. 26 [12-41]; P<.001), a higher h-index (12 [8-16] vs. 8 [5-11]; P<.001), a higher number of citations per publication (12.54 [9.65-21.8] vs. 10.63 [5.67-16.10]; P=.01), and a higher number of citations (563 [321-896] vs. 263 [105-484]; P<.001). Researchers with a ResearchGate account (median [IQR]) had more scientific publications (33 [17-47] vs. 26 [9-43]; P=.03) and a higher h-index (9 [6-13] vs. 8 [3-11]; P=.03). There was no difference between researchers with a ResearchGate account and those without it concerning the number of citations per publication and overall number of citations. In multivariate analysis including sex, academic status, and presence on social networks, the presence on Twitter was associated with the number of publications (β=20.2; P<.001), the number of citations (β=494.5; P<.001), and the h-index (β=4.5; P<.001). Conclusions Among French anesthesia researchers, an active presence on Twitter is associated with higher scientific publication and citations.

An exploratory analysis of pediatric anesthesia activity on Twitter using the #pedsanes hashtag

“…The increase in social media use among the #pedsanes community mirrors the use of the #regionalanesthesia and #regionalanaesthesia hashtags, especially during conferences and throughout the COVID pandemic 11–14,20 . The adoption of social media such as Twitter is likely inevitable as it has played a significant role in disseminating information and is associated with a higher citation rate among French anesthesia researchers 4–6,8 . Of interest, our study reports a higher retweet rate of 61.2%, when compared with users of the #anesthesia and #regionalanesthesia/#regionalanaesthesia hashtags who retweeted at lower rates of 33% and 49%, respectively 12,13 .…”

“…The use of social media within the medical field has rapidly evolved over the past two decades, with Twitter being one of the most common platforms of engagement 1,2 . Social media has proven to be an essential source of information dissemination, allowing innovations to be shared before peer‐reviewed publication while increasing research reach compared with scientific journal publication alone 3–8 . It is also an important source of professional networking and, in some instances, has been used as public education, advocacy, and support resource 9–11 .…”

Amplifying research influence through the social network, open access publishing, and international collaboration: A mediation analysis on nursing studies literature

“…(Watson et al, 2019) A few published empirical studies examined the effects of empirical data on other research fields. (Antoniou et al, 2015;Betz et al, 2021;Harsh et al, 2021;Mutka et al, 2021;Wilson et al, 2020) A study by Clavier et al (2021) found that the number of tweets an arti-…”

“…(Watson et al, 2019) A few published empirical studies examined the effects of empirical data on other research fields. (Antoniou et al, 2015; Betz et al, 2021; Harsh et al, 2021; Mutka et al, 2021;Wilson et al, 2020) A study by Clavier et al (2021) found that the number of tweets an article received was moderately correlated to the citation count of the article published in 2008 and 2011 in Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR). Results of the study suggest that the tweets within the first 3 days of the articles publication can predict if the article is going to be a highly cited article in JMIR.…”

Evaluation of Medical Confidentiality Breaches on Twitter Among Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Health Care Workers

“…1 It is a social network used for professional purposes by many medical societies, researchers, and professionals in the fields of anesthesiology and intensive care. 2–4 Thus, we recently described that 24% of prolific authors publishing in the field of anesthesiology journals have a Twitter account and that 17% of French anesthesiology, intensive care, and emergency medicine health care workers use Twitter at least once a week. 5,6 This new network use should increase with the arrival of younger physicians since it was reported that 35% of medical students used Twitter for teaching purposes.…”