The politicization of medical preprints on Twitter during the early stages of COVID-19 pandemic

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We examine the patterns of medical preprint sharing on Twitter during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our analysis demonstrates a stark increase in attention to medical preprints among the general public since the beginning of the pandemic. We also observe a political divide in medical preprint sharing patterns – a finding in line with previous observations regarding the politicisation of COVID-19-related discussions.

In addition, we find that the increase in attention to preprints from the members of the general public coincided with the change in the social media-based discourse around preprints.

Aleksandra Urman, Stefania Ionescu, David Garcia, Anikó Hannák, The politicization of medical preprints on Twitter during the early stages of COVID-19 pandemic, Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media 2 (2022) 1–46