A randomized controlled trial found that articles promoted through TrendMD showed a 50% increase in mean citations relative to controls after 12 months. In the 36-month follow-up, published in JMIR, that citation advantage persisted: articles randomized to TrendMD showed a 28% increase in mean citations relative to controls.
Why is it challenging to increase article citations?
TrendMD’s efficient dissemination of scholarly research fills that void. We’ve demonstrated it with a prior randomized controlled trial, and today we share the 36-month follow-up results.
In a randomized controlled trial published in the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology , articles promoted through TrendMD saw a 50% citation lift over 12 months. We revisited both the TrendMD and control groups after 36 months. This follow-up research is published in JMIR .
Mean citations over 12 months: TrendMD versus control
How does TrendMD affect citation rates over time?
We found that articles disseminated in the TrendMD network maintained a citation advantage after 36 months. Articles randomized to TrendMD showed a 28% increase in mean citations relative to the control.
Here's how we determined that figure. We block-randomized 3,200 published articles in 64 peer-reviewed journals across eight subject areas. The articles were randomly assigned at the subject level to either the TrendMD group (n=1600) or the study's control group (n=1600). Articles were promoted in the TrendMD Network for six months. We compared the citation rates in both groups after 36 months.
As we explained, articles randomized to TrendMD showed a 28% increase in mean citations relative to the control. The difference in mean citations at 36 months for articles randomized to TrendMD versus the control was 10.52 (95% CI 3.79-17.25) and was statistically significant (P=.001).
Mean citations over 36 months: TrendMD versus control
What did the 36-month follow-up find?
"TrendMD is an efficient digital tool for knowledge translation and dissemination to targeted audiences to facilitate the uptake of research," our follow-up article concludes. You can read the full article here.
[1] Van Noorden R. The science that's never been cited. Nature 2017 Dec 14;552(7684):162-164. [ CrossRef ] [ Medline ]
[2] Chu JSG, Evans JA. Slowed canonical progress in large fields of science. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021 Oct 12;118(41):e2021636118 [ FREE Full text ] [ CrossRef ] [ Medline ]
