Social media uptake of academic publications: Differences due to availability, subject and demographic parameters

In this study we evaluate the social media uptake of Norwegian articles for the years 2011-2015. We analyse the difference regarding open availability, subject, gender and age.

Our dataset consist of over 70000 publications taken from CERES the National Center for Systems and Services in Norway. The dataset from CERES provides a unique possibility to learn more about the differences in gender and age when it comes to social media uptake. It contains information about subject category, gender and age of contributing authors. Open availability is tested with Google Scholar and the information about social media uptake is taken from altmetric.com. We analyses the popular services Facebook and Twitter as well as blog posts and news outlets.

We find that open availability increases social media uptake. Articles within Medicine and Health sciences receive by far the highest coverage in social media followed by Natural sciences and Technology. Publications authored by women seem to receive more social media coverage but with a lower intensity. Well-established scholars receive most media attention, the differences with regard to gender and age are however very small.

Even though our study is limited to publications in Norway our study covers a wide range of fields, and we believe it is representative for other countries. Our results can be used to inform the research community on how to disseminate research findings, get visible and maximize research impact.