Social media-based sleeping beauties: Defining, identifying and features

The sleeping beauties in science signify a unique knowledge diffusion trajectory created by citation after the publication of scientific literature. However, in social media, scientific knowledge creates a new diffusion trajectory through social media metrics such as View, Save, Discussed, and Recommendations. This study aims to define social media-based sleeping beauties S-SB in science by using social media metrics which we termed as citation-based Sleeping Beauties in science, C-SB. We constructed a quantitative method to identify S-SB and conducted an empirical study of all types of 4019 articles published in PLOS Biology. Comparison of the S-SB and C-SB results revealed that from the perspective of social media metrics, C-SB has become the literature of S-total elements early gradual awakening type, S-total elements delay gradual awakening type, and S-early sudden awakening type. Moreover, the awakening time of C-SB literature under the action of social media metrics was found to be 4-5 years earlier than that under the action of citation-based indicators. Both C-SB and S-SB included significant "Editorial Material," establishing that "Editorial Material" type literature is noteworthy while promoting the diffusion of scientific knowledge. Overall, this study extends the perspective of sleeping beauties in science. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.