Brief Report: The Impact of Social and News Media Coverage on the Dissemination of Autism Research.
Anne Longo, Brittany N Hand
PMID 35128588WHAT IT FOUND
Autism research articles with more Twitter shares or news coverage were downloaded and cited more.
Facebook posts were linked to downloads only. This is about article reach, not patient care.
Key findings
01Every 10 Twitter shares was associated with a 4.4% increase in downloads and a 5.2% increase in citations.
02Articles with at least one news story had 56.9% more downloads and 39.3% more citations.
03Articles with at least one Facebook post had 23.3% more downloads but did not significantly differ in citations.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The data were collected once in June 2021, and download, citation, and social media counts change over time, so the numbers are a snapshot. Only public social media posts were counted, and posts from private pages, YouTube, and Instagram were not included, so total sharing may be underestimated. The study looked at only three autism journals, so it may not apply to other journals or audiences. The analysis measured associations, not whether media coverage caused higher downloads or citations. Conference presentations and other ways of sharing research were not studied.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat more downloads, citations, or media shares as proof that an autism study is clinically useful. The paper measured article reach, not patient outcomes.