A randomized controlled trial of social media promotion in neurosurgical publishing

• DOI: 10.1007/s10143-024-02597-5
• Publication Date: 2024-07-27T03:28:34Z
• Authors: Moira Vieli; Bianca Battilana; Alex Alamri; Katrin Rabiei; Laura Lippa; Claire Karekezi; Angelos Kolias; Carlo Serra; Luca Regli; Tiit Mathiesen; Victor E. Staartjes
• Keywords: Promotion (chess); Altmetrics

Abstract The importance of social media has seen a dramatic increase in recent times, but much about its influence academia is still unknown. To date, no comparative studies analysing the effect promotion on citation counts have been undertaken neurosurgical publishing. We randomized 177 articles published Acta Neurochirurgica from May to September 2020. 89 intervention group received standardized through one post our official Twitter/X account, whereas 88 control did not receive any promotion. Citation counts, website visits and PDF downloads were tracked at two years post-promotion. found significant difference number citations year post-promotion (Intervention: 1.85 ± 3.94 vs. Control: 2.67 6.65, p = 0.322) or (5.35 7.39 7.09 12.1, 0.249). Similarly, was detected (587.46 568.04 590.65 636.25, 0.972) (865.79 855.80 896.31 981.97, 0.826) (183.40 152.02 187.78 199.01, 0.870) (255.99 218.97 260.97 258.44, 0.890). In study, structured general significantly impact count, visits, compared Combined with evidence academic publishing ultimately remains unclear.