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Do Science Kardashians Get Citation Premium? Self-Fulfilling Effects of Social Media on Citations

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  • Christian Lessmann
  • Ali Sina Önder

Abstract

We analyze whether the social media popularity of scientists affects the number of academic citations. We use the COVID-19 global pandemic as a quasi-natural experiment exogenously increasing public attention and the demand for expertise. Using social media stars’ and their coauthors’ publications on COVID-related topics prior to the break out of the pandemic, we find that the social media star status added 1.10 citations following the breakout of COVID-19 per year per article, corresponding to 80% of the pre-COVID citation gap between stars and their coauthors. We provide a brief discussion of policy implications in light of these findings.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Lessmann & Ali Sina Önder, 2023. "Do Science Kardashians Get Citation Premium? Self-Fulfilling Effects of Social Media on Citations," CESifo Working Paper Series 10661, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10661
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    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp10661.pdf
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    social media; expertise; Kardashian index; citations; Covid;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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