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To be or not to be on Twitter, and its relationship with the tweeting and citation of research papers

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  • José Luis Ortega

    (CCHS-CSIC)

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to understand the relationship between the diffusion and mention of research papers in Twitter according to whether their authors are members or not of that micro-blogging service. To that end, 4166 articles from 76 Twitter users and 124 from non-Twitter users were analysed. Data on Twitter mentions were extracted from PlumX Analytics, information on each Twitter user was taken from the own platform and citations were collected from Scopus public API. Results show that papers from Twitter users are 33 % more tweeted than documents of non-Twitter users. From Twitter users, the increase of followers produces 30 % more tweets. No differences were found between the citation impact (i.e. number of citations) of papers authored by Twitter users and non-Twitter users. However, the number of followers indirectly influences the citation impact. The main conclusion is that the participation on Twitter affects the dissemination of research papers, and in consequence, it indirectly favours the likelihood that academic outputs being cited.

Suggested Citation

  • José Luis Ortega, 2016. "To be or not to be on Twitter, and its relationship with the tweeting and citation of research papers," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(2), pages 1353-1364, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:109:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-016-2113-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-016-2113-0
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    Cited by:

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    5. Ortega, José Luis, 2018. "The life cycle of altmetric impact: A longitudinal study of six metrics from PlumX," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 579-589.
    6. Muñoz, María M. & Rojas-de-Gracia, María-Mercedes & Navas-Sarasola, Carlos, 2022. "Measuring engagement on twitter using a composite index: An application to social media influencers," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(4).
    7. David Howoldt & Henning Kroll & Peter Neuhäusler, 2023. "Relating popularity on Twitter and Linkedin to bibliometric indicators of visibility and interconnectedness: an analysis of 8512 applied researchers in Germany," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(10), pages 5571-5594, October.
    8. Liwei Zhang & Jue Wang, 2021. "What affects publications’ popularity on Twitter?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(11), pages 9185-9198, November.
    9. Martín-Martín, Alberto & Orduna-Malea, Enrique & Delgado López-Cózar, Emilio, 2018. "Author-level metrics in the new academic profile platforms: The online behaviour of the Bibliometrics community," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 494-509.
    10. Yu, Houqiang & Li, Longfei & Cao, Xueting & Chen, Tao, 2022. "Exploring country's preference over news mentions to academic papers," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(4).
    11. José Luis Ortega, 2018. "Reliability and accuracy of altmetric providers: a comparison among Altmetric.com, PlumX and Crossref Event Data," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(3), pages 2123-2138, September.
    12. Stephan Puehringer & Georg Wolfmayr, 2023. "Competitive Performativity of (Academic) Social Networks. The subjectivation of Competition on ResearchGate, Google Scholar and Twitter," ICAE Working Papers 150, Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy.
    13. Liwei Zhang & Jue Wang, 2018. "Why highly cited articles are not highly tweeted? A biology case," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 117(1), pages 495-509, October.
    14. David Howoldt & Henning Kroll & Peter Neuhäusler & Alexander Feidenheimer, 2023. "Understanding researchers’ Twitter uptake, activity and popularity—an analysis of applied research in Germany," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(1), pages 325-344, January.
    15. Mingyang Wang & Zhenyu Wang & Guangsheng Chen, 2019. "Which can better predict the future success of articles? Bibliometric indices or alternative metrics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 119(3), pages 1575-1595, June.
    16. Stephan Puehringer & Georg Wolfmayr, 2023. "Organizers and promotors of academic competition? The role of (academic) social networks and platforms in the competitization of science," ICAE Working Papers 152, Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy.
    17. Cao, Renmeng & Geng, Yu & Xu, Xiaoke & Wang, Xianwen, 2022. "How does duplicate tweeting boost social media exposure to scholarly articles?," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1).

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