Factors Influencing Engagement Rate Of A Daily Twitter Campaign To Disseminate Exercise Oncology Literature

Abstract

Twitter is a potential medium for health researchers and practitioners to disseminate research findings to colleagues and the general public. The Clinical Exercise Physiology Lab (CEPL; Vancouver, Canada) led a scientific Twitter campaign (#365Papers) in 2018, involving tweeting daily about one peer-reviewed publication related to cancer/exercise. Features of this campaign included Throwback Thursdays (selected article published prior to 2018) and guest tweeters (selected article chosen by other exercise oncology researchers). PURPOSE: To report on the impact to-date of the #365Papers campaign and explore how engagement rate differed based on publication features (type of research (i.e., systematic review, randomized controlled trial), journal impact factor, Altmetric Attention Score) and campaign features (i.e., Throwback Thursdays, guest tweeters). METHODS: Campaign data were obtained from Twitter Analytics (Twitter, 2020: San Francisco, USA) and summarized using descriptive statistics. Publication information was extracted by screening titles and abstracts. Each publication’s Altmetric Attention Score was obtained using the Altmetric Bookmarklet (Digital Science, Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, 2020: Stuttgart, Germany). RESULTS: As of October 2020, the #365Papers Twitter campaign received a total of 688,117 impressions and 22,124 engagements (median engagement rate = 3.2%), with the majority of engagement from URL clicks (n = 8279; 37%). Engagement rate did not differ based on type of research (p = 0.53), journal impact factor (r = -0.06; p = 0.27), Altmetric Attention Score (r = 0.01; p = 0.80), nor if the tweet was part of a Throwback Thursday (p = 0.97). However, guest tweets had significantly higher engagement rates versus non-guest tweets (median: 3.6% vs. 3.1%; p = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: A daily scientific Twitter campaign can promote engagement around new scientific publications, especially when prominent figures in the research field are incorporated in the campaign process.