Newswise — An analysis of over 800 academic research papers on physical health and exercise suggests that the level of popular media coverage for a given paper is strongly linked to the attention it receives within the scientific community. P. Sage Anderson and colleagues at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, report these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on July 1, 2020.
Popular media sources, such as mainstream news and social media, often discuss scientific findings originally reported in peer-reviewed papers published by academic journals. The scientific impact of a paper is usually judged according to the number of times it is cited by other peer-reviewed papers. However, the relationship between the scientific impact of a paper and its level of coverage in popular media is unclear.
Anderson and colleagues evaluated 818 peer-reviewed papers published in 2007 or 2008 that reported original research findings on various aspects of physical health and exercise. They examined the relationship between the amount of popular media attention given to each paper and the number of citations it received. They also accounted—as much as possible—for the reputations of the papers’ authors and of the journals in which the papers were published.
The analysis revealed a robust association between the amount of popular media coverage of a given paper and the number of times it was cited – papers which received more media attention also tended to be more highly cited. Whether one causes the other is unclear; the media may be picking up on which papers have the most scientific impact, or media attention might influence the likelihood of a paper to be cited by subsequent papers, or a third factor might drive both media attention and citations.
Further research is needed to clarify the relationship between popular media coverage and scientific impact. Nonetheless, these findings could help inform research institutions and other organizations that place importance on scientific impact. They could also provide new insights for scientists who use the media to communicate with their peers and the public about their research.
The authors add: “Results from this study confirm the idea that media attention given to scientific research is strongly related to scientific citations for that same research. These results can inform scientists who are considering using popular media to increase awareness concerning their work, both within and outside the scientific community.”
Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plo
About PLOS ONE
PLOS ONE is a multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed open access journal that publishes sound science from all fields of scientific research. For more information, visit http://journals.plos.org/ploso
Media and Copyright Information
For information about PLOS ONE relevant to journalists, bloggers and press officers, including details of our press release process and embargo policy, visit http://journals.plos.org/ploso
PLOS Journals publish under a Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits free reuse of all materials published with the article, so long as the work is cited.
About the Public Library of Science
Public Library of Science (PLOS) is a nonprofit Open Access publisher, innovator and advocacy organization dedicated to accelerating progress in science and medicine by leading a transformation in research communication. The PLOS suite of journals contain rigorously peer-reviewed Open Access research articles from all areas of science and medicine, together with expert commentary and analysis. In addition to journals, the organization advances innovations in scientific publishing through Collections, Communities and The PLOS Blog Network. Founded to catalyze a revolution in scientific publishing by demonstrating the value and feasibility of Open Access publication, PLOS is committed to innovative and forward-looking solutions to scientific communication. For more information, visit http://www.plos.org.
RSS