Open AccessThe Association Between Professional Accounts on Social Networks Twitter and ResearchGate and the Number of Scientific Publications and Citations Among Anesthesia Researchers: Observational Study
Author(s) -
Thomas Clavier,
Emilie Occhiali,
Zoé Demailly,
Vincent Compère,
Benoît Veber,
Jean Selim,
Emmanuel Besnier
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
jmir. journal of medical internet research/journal of medical internet research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.446
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1439-4456
pISSN - 1438-8871
DOI - 10.2196/29809
Subject(s) - citation , analytics , observational study , social media , index (typography) , altmetrics , association (psychology) , psychology , medicine , world wide web , computer science , data science , psychotherapist
Background Social networks are now essential tools for promoting research and researchers. However, there is no study investigating the link between presence or not on professional social networks and scientific publication or citation for a given researcher. Objective The objective of this study was to study the link between professional presence on social networks and scientific publications/citations among anesthesia researchers. Methods We included all the French full professors and associate professors of anesthesia. We analyzed their presence on the social networks Twitter (professional account with ≥1 tweet over the 6 previous months) and ResearchGate. We extracted their bibliometric parameters for the 2016-2020 period via the Web of Science Core Collection (Clarivate Analytics) database in the Science Citation Index-Expanded index. Results A total of 162 researchers were analyzed; 42 (25.9%) had an active Twitter account and 110 (67.9%) a ResearchGate account. There was no difference between associate professors and full professors regarding active presence on Twitter (8/23 [35%] vs. 34/139 [24.5%], respectively; P =.31) or ResearchGate (15/23 [65%] vs. 95/139 [68.3%], respectively; P =.81). Researchers with an active Twitter account (median [IQR]) had more scientific publications (45 [28-61] vs. 26 [12-41]; P <.001), a higher h-index (12 [8-16] vs. 8 [5-11]; P <.001), a higher number of citations per publication (12.54 [9.65-21.8] vs. 10.63 [5.67-16.10]; P =.01), and a higher number of citations (563 [321-896] vs. 263 [105-484]; P <.001). Researchers with a ResearchGate account (median [IQR]) had more scientific publications (33 [17-47] vs. 26 [9-43]; P =.03) and a higher h-index (9 [6-13] vs. 8 [3-11]; P =.03). There was no difference between researchers with a ResearchGate account and those without it concerning the number of citations per publication and overall number of citations. In multivariate analysis including sex, academic status, and presence on social networks, the presence on Twitter was associated with the number of publications (β=20.2; P <.001), the number of citations (β=494.5; P <.001), and the h-index (β=4.5; P <.001). Conclusions Among French anesthesia researchers, an active presence on Twitter is associated with higher scientific publication and citations.