Do Science Kardashians Get Citation Premium? Self‐Fulfilling Effects of Social Media on Scientific Impact
利用新冠疫情作为自然实验，发现社交媒体明星科学家在疫情前发表的论文在2019年后年均引用量增加，表明社交媒体可见性对学术引用有自我实现效应。
ABSTRACT We analyze whether the visibility of scientists on social media affects the number of academic citations. We use the global COVID‐19 pandemic as a quasinatural experiment that exogenously increased public attention and the demand for expertise. Using publications on COVID‐related topics by social media stars and their coauthors prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, we find that social media stars' pre‐COVID‐era papers received about – more citations annually per paper after 2019. Quantitatively comparable results are obtained when we use scientists' Kardashian index (K‐index) as a benchmark for stardom, however we find no significant effects when using the intensive margin of scientists' K‐indexes. We provide a brief discussion of policy implications in light of these findings.