Cover effects on citations uncovered: Evidence from Nature

作者：

Highlights：

• We study the effects of an article featured on the cover of a prestigious journal.

• We employ 30 years of bibliometric data including Nature authors’ other articles.

• We confirm that cover articles are cited significantly more than noncover articles.

• However, ex-ante differences in authors citations are a signal of selection effects.

• Cover articles actually result in a relative decrease of citations to their authors.

摘要

•We study the effects of an article featured on the cover of a prestigious journal.•We employ 30 years of bibliometric data including Nature authors’ other articles.•We confirm that cover articles are cited significantly more than noncover articles.•However, ex-ante differences in authors citations are a signal of selection effects.•Cover articles actually result in a relative decrease of citations to their authors.

论文关键词：Bibliometric indicators,Citation flows,Research evaluation,Cover article

论文评审过程：Received 15 November 2020, Revised 19 April 2022, Accepted 22 April 2022, Available online 3 May 2022, Version of Record 3 May 2022.

论文官网地址：https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2022.101293