A case study exploring associations between popular media attention of scientific research and scientific citations

The association between mention of scientific research in popular media (e.g., the mainstream media or social media platforms) and scientific impact (e.g., citations) has yet to be fully explored. The purpose of this study was to clarify this relationship, while accounting for some other factors tha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	PloS one Vol. 15; no. 7; p. e0234912
Main Authors:	Anderson, P. Sage, Odom, Aubrey R, Gray, Hunter M, Jones, Jordan B, Christensen, William F, Hollingshead, Todd, Hadfield, Joseph G, Evans-Pickett, Alyssa, Frost, Megan, Wilson, Christopher, Davidson, Lance E, Seeley, Matthew K
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	San Francisco Public Library of Science 01-07-2020 Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:	Appropriations Author productivity Bibliometrics Biology and Life Sciences Computer and Information Sciences Digital media Documents Education Evaluation Forecasts and trends Hypotheses Indexing services Informetrics Journal impact factor Media Media coverage Medical research Medicine and Health Sciences Multivariate statistical analysis People and Places Physiology Public relations Research and Analysis Methods Research projects Researchers Reviews Science journalism Science journals Science Policy Scientific papers Scientific research Scientists Social networks Social Sciences Studies United States United States > US Utah
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Summary:	The association between mention of scientific research in popular media (e.g., the mainstream media or social media platforms) and scientific impact (e.g., citations) has yet to be fully explored. The purpose of this study was to clarify this relationship, while accounting for some other factors that likely influence scientific impact (e.g., the reputations of the scientists conducting the research and academic journal in which the research was published). To accomplish this purpose, approximately 800 peer-reviewed articles describing original research were evaluated for scientific impact, popular media attention, and reputations of the scientists/authors and publication venue. A structural equation model was produced describing the relationship between non-scientific impact (popular media) and scientific impact (citations), while accounting for author/scientist and journal reputation. The resulting model revealed a strong association between the amount of popular media attention given to a scientific research project and corresponding publication and the number of times that publication is cited in peer-reviewed scientific literature. These results indicate that (1) peer-reviewed scientific publications receiving more attention in non-scientific media are more likely to be cited than scientific publications receiving less popular media attention, and (2) the non-scientific media is associated with the scientific agenda. These results may inform scientists who increasingly use popular media to inform the general public and scientists concerning their scientific work. These results might also inform administrators of higher education and research funding mechanisms, who base decisions partly on scientific impact.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Competing Interests: The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:	1932-6203 1932-6203
DOI:	10.1371/journal.pone.0234912