Student Researcher Wayne State University Troy, Michigan
Rationale: In this Internet-driven age, social media has become a critical means by which information is communicated and shared. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have grown tremendously and now provide a unique opportunity for researchers in the field of clinical neurophysiology. These social media platforms allow research papers to reach broad audiences globally, while also functioning as a medium where researchers can engage in dialogue about their findings with other researchers. Here, we conducted interviews with researchers who published their studies in Clinical Neurophysiology or Clinical Neurophysiology Practice and introduced them on the official Facebook page of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology (www.facebook.com/ClinicalNeurophysiology). Thereby, we illustrated the personal stories of the researchers behind critical works published in the paper while also garnering a better understanding of the work they conducted. We tested the hypothesis that this interview would contribute to higher user engagement with their research paper. Methods: We analyzed the 239 posts on the official Facebook page of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology (Social Media Editor: E.A.) for the first 76 days since the opening day (between April 1 and June 15, 2020). Multivariate regression analysis determined whether the inclusion of a researcher interview would independently increase user engagement to a given post. The predictor variables included [1] interview (yes/no), [2] day (range: 1 to 76), [3] weekend (uploaded on the weekend or weekday), [4] latest paper (publication in 2020 or others), [5] number of figure attachments (range: 0 to 4), [6] attachment of a colored figure (yes/no), [7] attachment of a movie (yes/no). The outcome measures included: [a] ‘reach’ (number of unique internet users seeing a given post), [b] ‘engagement’ (number of unique users clicking a given post to read), and [c] ‘proportion of engaged users’ (‘engagement’ divided by ‘reach’). Results: We found that the reach of each post increased by day (p=0.008). The engagement was independently associated with day (p=0.008) and interview (p< 0.001); interview-based posts received an average of 30.0 more clicks compared to the others. Likewise, an increased proportion of engaged users was independently associated with the inclusion of an interview (p< 0.001); on average, 13.2% of users were engaged with interview-based posts, whereas 6.0% with the other types of posts. Conclusions: Our study supports the notion that social media’s ability to connect people across the globe instantaneously makes it a valuable tool to increase the visibility of research papers in the field of clinical neurophysiology. Our results suggest that the inclusion of an interview with a researcher involved in the project may enhance engagement with papers published in medical specialty journals. Funding: Please list any funding that was received in support of this abstract.: None.
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