Which papers cited which tweets? An exploratory analysis based on Scopus data

Many altmetric studies have analyzed which papers were mentioned how often on Twitter (one of the most important altmetrics sources). In order to study the potential relevance of tweets from another perspective, we investigate which tweets were cited in papers. If many tweets were cited in publications, this might demonstrate that tweets have substantial and useful content. Overall, a rather low number of citations to tweets (n= 13,149) by less than 7,000 papers was found. Most tweets do not seem to be cited because of any cognitive influence they might have had on studies; they rather were study objects. Thus, this study does not support a high relevance of tweets (for research). Most of the papers that cited tweets are from the subject areas Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, and Medicine. Most of the papers cited only one tweet. Up to 65 tweets cited in a single paper were found. An author keyword analysis revealed that the single largest topic seems to be the COVID-19/corona pandemic.

Automated summary

Many altmetric studies have examined the frequency of paper mentions on Twitter. This study investigates the citations of tweets in papers to assess their potential relevance. However, the findings suggest a low number of citations and indicate that tweets are more often used as study objects rather than influential content. The subject areas with the most citations of tweets are Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, and Medicine, with COVID-19/corona pandemic being the dominant topic.