Here we show, using GWAS Catalog data, that GWAS papers that share data get on average 81.8% more citations, an effect that is sustained over time…By adding a binary variable describing sharing practice, we concluded that sharing summary statistics has a positive effect on the RCR, providing ~81.8% more citations on average than non-sharing articles.
Figure 2: Citation patterns over time (2006–152021), measured in log relative citation ratio. (a) All GWAS. (b) Split by summary statistics sharing status. Sharing studies are consistently more cited than non-sharing studies. Lower and upper box hinges represent the 25th and 75th percentiles, respectively. The whiskers extend for 1.5 × IQR from each hinge, and the horizontal line within the boxes represents the median.
Figure 3: Mean citation count evolution after publication, by year of publication (2010–82018). Sharing studies get more citations from early on, then stabilizing circa 2 years after publication. (a) Mean citation count ratio (shared/unshared). (b) Sharing (orange) and non-sharing (blue) mean citation count. Text in squares indicates the number of studies in each category.
