Using social media to disseminate hand surgery research boosts long-term citations

Social media (SoMe) is increasingly used for research promotion and dissemination. Classic bibliometrics measure long-term measures of research impact, such as citation counts. Altmetrics are newer real-time measures of activity on multiple SoMe platforms (e.g. X, Facebook) capturing the consumption, reach and impact of scientific outputs. Promotion via SoMe has short-term positive impacts on citations but the long-term impact remains unknown.

Altmetrics and citation rates were collected from Altmetric Explorer 6 years post-publication for 624 articles published in 2017 across six hand surgery journals (Journal of Hand Surgery, Journal of Hand Surgery: European Volume, Journal of Hand Surgery: Asian-Pacific Volume, Journal of Plastic Surgery and Hand Surgery, Techniques in Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery and HAND). Negative binomial regression was used to estimate the relationships between citation counts and predictor variables. Incident rate ratios were reported as 95% confidence intervals (CI).

SoMe mentions had a long-term positive impact on citations, whereby mentions in 2017 were independently associated with a 2% higher citation rate 6 years later (CI 1-3%). Evidence synthesis studies had at least eight more citations than other types of articles (p < 0.001), and articles published in the Journal of Hand Surgery had more citations than those in other hand surgery journals (p < 0.001).

Using SoMe to advertise hand surgery literature is associated with long-term gains in citations. Continued research into the impact of SoMe on bibliometrics will help to ensure the academic ecosphere is responsive to evolving digital trends.

IV (Cross-sectional study).