Does A Paper Being Featured on The Cover of A Journal Guarantee More Attention and Greater Impact?

TL;DR

This study investigates whether being featured on a journal cover leads to increased attention and impact, finding no significant difference compared to non-cover papers across multiple issues.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence that journal cover features do not significantly influence a paper's attention or scholarly impact.

Findings

No significant difference in citations between cover and non-cover papers

Cover papers are not consistently the most impactful within issues

Being on the cover does not guarantee higher attention or impact

Abstract

Paper featured on the cover of a journal has more visibility in an issue compared with other ordinary articles for both printed and electronic journal. Does this kind of visibility guarantee more attention and greater impact of its associated content than the non-cover papers? In this research, usage and citation data of 60 issues of PLOS Biology from 2006 to 2010 are analyzed to compare the attention and scholarly impact between cover and non-cover paper. Our empirical study confirms that, in most cases, the group difference between cover and non-cover paper is not significant for attention or impact. Cover paper is not the best one, nor at the upper level in one issue considering the attention or the citation impact. Having a paper featured on the cover of a journal may be a source of pride to researchers, many institutions and researchers would even release news about it. However, a paper being featured on the cover of a journal doesn't guarantee more attention and greater impact.