EP.WE.372Has COVID-19 affected the attention surgical papers are receiving?. (28th October 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Baker, Megan; Hanton, Alice; Perin, Giordano; Lumley, Emma; Mahendran, Ashuvini; Saha, Arin
• Is Part Of: British journal of surgery. Volume 108:Supplement 7(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-10-28
• Subjects: Surgery -- Periodicals; 617.005
• DOI: 10.1093/bjs/znab308.044
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0007-1323

Abstract

Abstract: Aim: Unsurprisingly, much of the medical profession has focussed on treating covid-19 over the past year often to the detriment of other pathologies. Engagement with academic literature may follow a similar trend; this paper used standard social media attention and citations metrices to assess whether the pandemic has affected engagement with surgical literature. Method: Twitter Mentions and Mendeley Readers Data were retrieved for all papers published in Annals of Surgery, BJS and JAMASurgery between January 2019 and October 2020. The non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare Twitter Mentions and Mendeley Readers for COVID surgical vs non-COVID surgical publications (in 2020) and all surgical papers published before and after the advent of COVID-19. A control database of all papers published in NEJM, BMJ and Lancet over the same period of time was also created. Results: There was no difference in Twitter mentions between COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 papers (p-value 0.604); however there were significantly more Mendeley readers of COVID-19 papers than non-COVID-19 papers in 2020 (55 vs 5 median readers, p < 0.001). Surgical papers published in 2020 received significantly fewer Twitter mentions than those published in 2019 (15.5 vs 27, p < 0.001). Analysis of the non-surgical control dataset revealed the opposite trend; papers published in 2020 received significantly more attention than those published in 2019 (39 vs 30 median Twitter citations, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Surgical papers published during the COVID-19 pandemic received significantly fewer social media mentions. Such reduced visibility has the potential to affect future citation metrics and dissemination of surgical knowledge