Open Access Publication in Total Knee Arthroplasty is Associated with Increased Social Media Attention, but is not Associated with Increased Citations - The Journal of Arthroplasty

Abstract:  Background

Open access (OA) publication is growing in total joint arthroplasty literature. While OA manuscripts are free to view, these publications require a fee from authors. This study aimed to compare social media attention and citation rates between OA and non-OA publications in the total knee arthroplasty (TKA) literature.

Methods

There were 9,606 publications included, with 4,669 (48.61%) as OA articles. The TKA articles were identified from 2016 to 2022 using a national database. Articles were grouped as OA or non-OA and Altmetric Attention Score (AAS), a weighted count of social media attention, and the Mendeley readership were analyzed using negative binomial regressions while adjusting for days since publication. Independent t-tests were utilized to compare means scores between OA vs. non-OA groups.

Results

The OA articles had greater mean AAS (13.45 vs. 8.42, P = 0.012) and Mendeley readership (43.91 vs. 36.72, P < 0.001). OA was not an independent predictor of number of citations when compared to non- OA articles (13.98 vs. 13.63, P = 0.914). Subgroup analysis of studies in top-10 arthroplasty journals showed OA was not an independent predictor of AAS (13.51 vs. 9.53, P = 0.084) or number of citations (19.51 vs. 18.74, P = 0.495), but was an independent predictor of Mendeley readership (49.05 vs. 40.25, P < 0.003).

Conclusion

The OA publications in the TKA literature were associated with increased social media attention, but not overall citations. This association was not observed among the top 10 journals. Authors may utilize these results to weigh the relative importance of readership, citations, and online engagement to the cost of OA publication.