A randomized controlled trial of social media promotion in neurosurgical publishing

Moira Vieli; Bianca Battilana; Alex Alamri; Katrin Rabiei; Laura Lippa; Claire Karekezi; Angelos Kolias; Carlo Serra; Luca Regli; Tiit Mathiesen; Victor E Staartjes

doi:10.1007/s10143-024-02597-5

A randomized controlled trial of social media promotion in neurosurgical publishing

Neurosurg Rev. 2024 Jul 27;47(1):363. doi: 10.1007/s10143-024-02597-5.

Authors

Moira Vieli¹, Bianca Battilana¹, Alex Alamri², Katrin Rabiei^{3

4}, Laura Lippa⁵, Claire Karekezi⁶, Angelos Kolias⁷, Carlo Serra¹, Luca Regli¹, Tiit Mathiesen^{8

9

10}, Victor E Staartjes^{11

12}

Affiliations

¹ Machine Intelligence in Clinical Neuroscience & Microsurgical Neuroanatomy (MICN) Laboratory, Department of Neurosurgery, Clinical Neuroscience Center, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
² Department of Neurosurgery, The Royal London Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, UK.
³ Institution of Neuroscience & Physiology, Sahlgrenska Academy, Gothenburg, Sweden.
⁴ Art Clinic Hospitals, Gothenburg, Sweden.
⁵ Dept of Neurosurgery, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Senese, Siena, Italy.
⁶ Neurosurgery Unit, Department of Surgery, Rwanda Military Hospital, Kigali, Rwanda.
⁷ Division of Neurosurgery, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
⁸ University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁹ Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.
¹⁰ Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
¹¹ Machine Intelligence in Clinical Neuroscience & Microsurgical Neuroanatomy (MICN) Laboratory, Department of Neurosurgery, Clinical Neuroscience Center, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. [email protected].
¹² Group Leader, MICN Laboratory, Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Zurich, Clinical Neuroscience Center, University of Zurich, Frauenklinikstrasse 10, Zurich, CH 8091, Switzerland. [email protected].

Abstract

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

Keywords: Neurosurgery; Randomized controlled trial; Social media; Twitter; X.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial

MeSH terms

Humans
Neurosurgery*
Periodicals as Topic
Publishing*
Social Media*