Graphical abstracts are associated with greater Altmetric attention scores, but not citations, in sport science

This paper aimed to determine if papers published with a Graphical abstract (GA) in the sport science field were associated with higher Altmetric attention scores and more citations than papers published without. A multivariate negative binomial mixed effects model was used to determine whether Altmetric attention scores and citation counts were different between articles published with or without a GA longitudinally over five timepoints. Included articles were published between January 2019 and December 2020 from three journals ranked within the top quartile of the category of "Sport Science". Of 562 articles, 96 were published with a GA. Articles with GA were associated with higher Altmetric attention score than those without (incidence rate ratio 1.89 [95% confidence interval [CI] 1.25-2.85]; p = 0.003; small effect), with no difference in citations (incidence rate ratio 0.97 [95% CI 0.72-1.30]; p = 0.829; trivial effect). This study suggests that publishing with a GA is associated with increased Altmetric attention scores, but not citations, in sport science. This may indicate that GAs improve research dissemination amongst the public, which is important in practical fields.