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December 9, 2024
The rapid development in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is leading to a constantly growing number of scientific publications. This development presents the research community with new challenges, particularly regarding the effective dissemination and reception of research results. Platforms like arXiv allow early access to preprints, but the sheer amount of available information makes it difficult to identify relevant work. In this context, social media activities, especially by influential personalities, play an increasingly important role.
This article examines the influence of social media activity on the visibility of AI research. The focus is on Twitter users @_akhaliq and @arankomatsuzaki, who act as curators for AI-related research results. By sharing preprints on Twitter, they reach a broad audience and contribute to the dissemination of new findings.
To quantify the influence of these activities, a comprehensive data analysis was conducted. The publications shared by @_akhaliq and @arankomatsuzaki were collected and compared with a control group. The control group consisted of publications that were not shared by the mentioned users, but were comparable in terms of publication year, venue, and topic area. This method made it possible to consider the influence of social media activity in isolation.
The analysis revealed a significant increase in citations for the publications shared by the influencers. The median citation counts were two to three times higher than those of the control group. These results highlight the influence of social media activity on the reception of research results. The increased visibility through sharing on Twitter can lead to wider dissemination and thus to more citations.
The results of this study raise important questions about the role of social media in scientific communication. While the activities of influencers can increase the visibility of research results, there is also a risk of bias. An excessive focus on certain topics or authors could lead to an imbalance in the research landscape. Therefore, it is important that influencers use their influence responsibly and present a diversity of research topics, authors, and institutions.
Future research should address the development of strategies that leverage the benefits of social media for scientific communication while minimizing the risks of bias. One possible approach would be the development of guidelines for influencers that promote transparency and diversity in their activities.
Bibliography: - https://twitter.com/_akhaliq?lang=de - https://x.com/_akhaliq?lang=de - https://x.com/_akhaliq - https://twitter.com/_akhaliq/status/1855993567128207754 - https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/comments/14rjsdl/d_papers_with_code_newsletter_replacement/?tl=de - https://arxiv.org/html/2401.13782v3 - https://twitter.com/Xianbao_QIAN/status/1851193590829236598/video/1 - https://www.linkedin.com/in/akhaliq - https://arxiv.org/html/2401.13782v1