Comparison of citations and attention of cover and non-cover papers

Ling Kong and Dongbo Wang

Journal of Informetrics, 2020, vol. 14, issue 4

Abstract: Exploring the differences between the academic and social impacts of journal cover and non-cover papers is crucial for evaluating scientific research. We compared the differences in citations and Altmetric scores between cover and non-cover papers published in Nature. Six dimensions were considered: coverage, annual geometric mean and median, interval distribution, correlation coefficient, impact significance, and subject terms. We analysed the citations of 1,266 cover and 10,241 non-cover papers from 2006 to 2015 and the characteristics of the Altmetric scores and interdisciplinary subjects of 503 cover and 5,361 non-cover papers from 2011 to 2015. The results of our empirical study demonstrate that the citations and Altmetric scores of cover papers are significantly higher than those of non-cover papers, though a smaller difference was observed in more recent years. The Spearman correlation coefficients of the citations with Altmetric scores and several subdivision indices of cover papers were higher than those of non-cover papers in more recent years. Furthermore, the degree of influence of cover papers on citations and Altmetric scores was higher than that of non-cover papers. In biological sciences, physical sciences, and other interdisciplinary subjects, the degree of interdisciplinarity between highly cited and high-Altmetric-score cover papers was relatively high.

Keywords: Cover paper; Non-cover paper; Citation; Altmetric score; Interdisciplinarity; Nature (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:infome:v:14:y:2020:i:4:s1751157719305048

DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2020.101095

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