Academic influencers: Clinical and Translational Science scholars and trainees at the intersection of influential scholarship and public attention.

INTRODUCTION

Clinical and Translational Science trainees are motivated to publish influential research. However, the extent to which this work gains influence with the public is largely unknown.

METHODS

The authors identified over 30,000 publications that received KL2 or TL1 grant support through a Clinical and Translational Science Awards hub, from 2006 through January 2024. The Altmetric Explorer database was then used, to collect references in sources such as news articles, tweets, and blogs. We investigated bibliometric characteristics and content areas, provide illustrative examples of influence, and determine the characteristics most likely to gain public attention.

RESULTS

Articles were published in 3,923 journals with a mean Journal Impact Factor (JIF) of 5.78, a mean Relative Citation Ratio (RCR) score of 2.02, and were cited an average of 33.7 times, totaling 1,017,291 citations. Over 4,800 were referenced in policy and were mentioned in over 64K news articles, 7K blog posts, and 480K X (Twitter) posts. The mean Altmetric Attention Score was 28.9, with 18.5% having scores of 20 or higher. Nearly 30% were related to COVID-19, indicating close public attention to this important health topic. Regression analyses indicate that higher JIF, being published after 2020, receiving more Mendeley downloads, higher RCR scores, being cited by in policy, and fewer academic citations, were more likely to receive altmetric attention.

CONCLUSIONS

By demonstrating how supported research has influence beyond academia to become "Academic Influencers," this study represents a significant advance in our ability to evaluate translational research impact.