Brief alcohol intervention trials conducted by higher prestige authors and published in higher impact factor journals are cited more frequently

To examine the relationships between study quality, author prestige, journal impact factors, and citation rates of trials and to examine whether journal impact factors mediated the relationships between study quality and author prestige on citation rates.

We used bibliometric data from 128 controlled trials included in a recent meta-analysis on brief alcohol interventions for adolescents and young adults. We obtained the number of citations from ISI Web of Knowledge and Google Scholar; journal impact factors were obtained from ISI Web of Knowledge. Linear regression models were used to examine the direct and indirect effects of interest.

The results indicated that studies were published in journals with higher impact factors when first authors had higher h-indices and studies were funded, but this was largely because those studies were of higher quality. Studies were cited more frequently when first authors had higher h-indices and studies were funded, even after adjusting for study quality proxies. The observed associations between study quality and author prestige on citation rates were also partly mediated through journal impact factors.

We conclude that studies conducted by more established authors and reported in more prestigious journal outlets are more likely to be cited by other scholars, even after controlling for various proxies of study quality.