Comparison of citations and attention of cover and non-cover papers

Highlights：

• This paper compares the citations and Altmetrics of cover and non-cover papers, and six dimensions were considered.

• The citations and Altmetric scores of cover papers are significantly higher than those of non-cover papers.

• The degree of influence of cover papers on citations and Altmetric scores was higher than that of non-cover papers.

• Papers in biological and physical sciences reached high citations and Altmetric scores.