“Does Tweeting Improve Citations? One-Year Results from the TSSMN Prospective Randomized Trial”, 2021 (; similar):
Background: The Thoracic Surgery Social Media Network (TSSMN) is a collaborative effort of leading journals in cardiothoracic surgery to highlight publications via social media. This study aims to evaluate the 1-year results of a prospective randomized social media trial to determine the effect of tweeting on subsequent citations and nontraditional bibliometrics.
Method: A total of 112 representative original articles were randomized 1:1 to be tweeted via TSSMN or a control (non-tweeted) group. Measured endpoints included citations at 1 year compared with baseline, as well as article-level metrics (Altmetric score) and Twitter analytics. Independent predictors of citations were identified through univariable and multivariable regression analyses.
Results: When compared with control articles, tweeted articles achieved substantially greater increase in Altmetric scores (Tweeted 9.4 ± 5.8 vs Non-tweeted 1.0 ± 1.8, p < 0.001), Altmetric score percentiles relative to articles of similar age from each respective journal (Tweeted 76.0 ± 9.1 percentile vs Non-tweeted 13.8 ± 22.7 percentile, p < 0.001), with greater change in citations at 1 year (Tweeted +3.1 ± 2.4 vs Non-Tweeted +0.7 ± 1.3, p < 0.001). Multivariable analysis showed that independent predictors of citations were randomization to tweeting (odds ratio [OR] 9.50; 95% confidence interval [CI] 3.30–27.35, p < 0.001), Altmetric score (OR 1.32; 95% CI 1.15–1.50, p < 0.001), open-access status (OR 1.56; 95% CI 1.21–1.78, p < 0.001), and exposure to a larger number of Twitter followers as quantified by impressions (OR 1.30, 95% CI 1.10–1.49, p < 0.001).
Conclusion: One-year follow-up of this TSSMN prospective randomized trial importantly demonstrates that tweeting results in substantially more article citations over time, highlighting the durable scholarly impact of social media activity.