Background: With greater use of social media platforms for promotions of research articles, retracted articles tend to receive approximately the same attention. We systematically analyzed retracted articles from retractionwatch.com to look at the Altmetric Attention Scores (AAS) garnered over a period of time in order to highlight the role of social media and other platforms in advertising retracted articles and its effect on the spread of misinformation. Methods: Retractionwatch.com was searched for coronavirus disease 2019 related retracted papers on November 6th, 2021. Articles were excluded based on lack of digital object identifier (DOI), if they were preprint articles, absent AAS, and incomplete AAS of pre retraction, post retraction, or both scores. Results: A total of 196 articles were found on the Retraction Watch website of which 189 were retracted papers and 7 were expression of concern (EOC). We then identified 175 articles after excluding those that did not have a DOI and 30 preprint articles were also excluded giving 145 articles. Further exclusion of articles with absent AAS and incomplete AAS resulted in a total of 22 articles. Conclusion Retracted articles receive significant online attention. Twitter and Mendeley were the most popular medium for publicizing retracted articles, therefore more focus should be given by journals and their Twitter accounts to discredit all their retracted articles.Preprints should be reconsidered as a whole by journals due to the huge risk they carry in disseminating false information.

Video abstracts (VAs) are a motion picture equivalent of written abstracts. With greater use of social media platforms for post publication promotions of research articles, VAs have gained increasing popularity among researchers in recent years. Widespread lockdowns and social distancing protocols in the pandemic period furthered the use of VAs as a tool for efficient learning. Moreover, these may be the preferred medium for communicating certain types of information, such as diagnostic or therapeutic procedures, qualitative research, perspectives, and techniques. In this article, the authors discuss the role of VAs in the advancement of academic research, plausible designs, freeware for making videos, and specific considerations for crafting good VAs.

Video abstracts (VAs) are a motion picture equivalent of written abstracts. With greater use of social media platforms for post publication promotions of research articles, VAs have gained increasing popularity among researchers in recent years. Widespread lockdowns and social distancing protocols in the pandemic period furthered the use of VAs as a tool for efficient learning. Moreover, these may be the preferred medium for communicating certain types of information, such as diagnostic or therapeutic procedures, qualitative research, perspectives, and techniques. In this article, the authors discuss the role of VAs in the advancement of academic research, plausible designs, freeware for making videos, and specific considerations for crafting good VAs.

Background:In India, the Home Based Postnatal Newborn Care programme by Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) under the National Rural Health Mission was initiated in 2011 to reduce neonatal mortality rates (NMRs). ASHAs get cash incentives for six postnatal home visits for newborn care. We studied newborn care practices among mothers in Mewat, Haryana, having a high NMR and determined risk factors for unsafe practices and described the knowledge and skills of ASHAs during home visits.Methods:A cross-sectional survey was conducted among mothers who had delivered a child during the previous seven months using cluster sampling. We interviewed mothers and ASHAs in the selected subcentres using semi–structured questionnaires on the six safe newborn care practices, namely safe breastfeeding, keeping cord and eyes clean, wrapping baby, kangaroo care, delayed bathing and hand washing.Results:We interviewed 320 mothers, 61 ASHAs and observed 19 home visits. Overall, 60% of mothers adopted less than three safe practices. Wrapping newborns (96%) and delayed bathing (64%) were better adopted than cord care (49%), safe breastfeeding (48%), hand washing (30%), kangaroo care (20%) and eye care (9%). Cultural beliefs and traditional birth attendants influenced the mother’s practices. The lack of supervision by auxiliary nurse midwives (ANM), delayed referral and transportation were the other challenges.Conclusion:Knowledge–practice gaps existed among mothers counselled by ASHAs. Poor utilization of reproductive and child health services decreased opportunities for ASHA–mother dialogue on safe practices. Recommendations included training ANMs, training TBAs as ASHAs, innovative communication strategies for ASHAs and improved referral system.

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has caused a breakdown in the healthcare system worldwide. The need to rapidly update guidelines in order to control the transmission in the population and for evidenced-based healthcare care has led to the need for timely, voluminous and valid research. Amid the quest for a vaccine and better therapies, researchers clamouring for information has led to a wide variety of ethical issues due to the unique situation. This paper aims to examine the positive and negative aspects of recent changes in the process of obtaining informed consent. The article outlines the various aspects, from history, previously described exemptions to consenting as well as those implemented during the pandemic and the current impact of virtual methods. Further, the authors make recommendations based on the outcome of suggested adjustments described in the literature. This article looks into increasing the awareness of physicians and researchers about ethical issues that need to be addressed to provide optimal care for patients while assuring their integrity and confidentiality.

The current digital era has led to a surge in the use of Social Media in academia. Worldwide connectivity has brought to the fore a scarce participation of Central Asia and adjoining regions in scientific discussions. Global perspectives in science may not be recorded due to such communication disparities. An equal representation of all ethnic groups is essential to have a rounded picture of the topic at hand. The extent of use of social media platforms in various regions is determined by social, economic, religious, political, cultural and ethnic factors, which may limit participation. The paper aims to examine the use of social media by academicians in the Central Asian countries, China and Mongolia. It also focusses on the linguistic skills of the Central Asian, Chinese and Mongolian population and their eagerness to be involved in global discussions. Understanding the factors limiting participation from specific regions is the first step in this direction.

Altmetrics has recently been at the forefront of tracking medical literature propagation on social media in the modern era. With the rapidly evolving landscape of social media for academia, there's room to revise the approach. The authors discuss current limitations and suggest changes to make online attention trackers more robust and wholesome. Medical literature propagated on currently popular social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok are not accounted for by altmetrics. For altmetrics to become a more robust tool it is vital that it keeps up with the times and accounts for representation of data from these platforms as well. Greater inclusivity, dynamic weightage of different social media platforms based on location dependant availability and usage, and period re-evaluation based on prevailing trends may help metrics reflect the true attention garnered by published research. Besides, development of hybrid scores with separate components to reflect online attention and traditional citations may provide readers a more fair and balanced perception of the actual importance of an article. With the changes proposed, altmetrics has the potential to become a much more inclusive and reflective tool in times to come.

Infographics are pictorial representations of information intended to disseminate information quickly and clearly. Their use has increased in the past decade due to wider and easy access to technology. Infographics are being increasingly used for public advisories, disseminating protocols for healthcare professionals, and post-publication promotion of research. Due to their potential to rapidly reach a vast audience, these have gained larger importance during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Two key aspects determine the quality of infographics, content and visual appeal. In this brief, the authors attempt to delineate the key aspects of designing an infographic, and the freeware that they may have at their disposal for creating informative, appealing, and useful infographics.

Infographics are pictorial representations of information intended to disseminate information quickly and clearly. Their use has increased in the past decade due to wider and easy access to technology. Infographics are being increasingly used for public advisories, disseminating protocols for healthcare professionals, and post-publication promotion of research. Due to their potential to rapidly reach a vast audience, these have gained larger importance during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Two key aspects determine the quality of infographics, content and visual appeal. In this brief, the authors attempt to delineate the key aspects of designing an infographic, and the freeware that they may have at their disposal for creating informative, appealing, and useful infographics.