Does Tweeting Improve Citations? One-Year Results From the TSSMN Prospective Randomized Trial.

Area of Science:

• Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Bibliometrics
• Social Media Analytics

Background:

• The Thoracic Surgery Social Media Network (TSSMN) utilizes social media to promote cardiothoracic surgery publications.
• A prospective randomized trial was conducted to assess the impact of social media promotion on research metrics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the 1-year results of a social media trial.
• To determine the effect of tweeting on article citations and nontraditional bibliometrics.

Main Methods:

• 112 original articles were randomized into tweeted and non-tweeted groups.
• Measured endpoints included citations, Altmetric scores, and Twitter analytics.
• Univariable and multivariable regression analyses identified predictors of citations.

Main Results:

• Tweeted articles showed significantly higher Altmetric scores (9.4 vs 1.0) and citation increases (+3.1 vs +0.7) at 1 year.
• Key predictors of citations included tweeting, Altmetric score, open-access status, and Twitter impressions.
• Tweeted articles achieved a 76.0 percentile in Altmetric scores compared to 13.8 for non-tweeted articles.

Conclusions:

• Tweeting academic articles leads to significantly more citations over time.
• Social media activity has a durable scholarly impact on research dissemination.
• The TSSMN trial highlights the effectiveness of social media in enhancing research visibility.