The funding effect on citation and social attention: the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a case study

Purpose Academic citation and social attention measure different dimensions in the impact of research results. The authors quantify the contribution of funding to both indicators considering the differences attributable to the research field and access type. Design/methodology/approach Citation and social attention accumulated until the year 2021 of more than 367 thousand research articles published in the year 2018 are studied. The authors consider funding acknowledgments (FAs) in the research articles. The data source is Dimensions, and the units of study are research articles in the United Nation (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Findings Most cited goals by researchers do not coincide with those that arouse greater social attention. A small proportion of articles accumulates a large part of the citations and most of the social attention. Both citation and social attention grow with funding. Thus, funded research has a greater probability of being cited in academic articles and mentioned in social media. Funded research receives on average two to three times more citations and 2.5 to 4.5 times more social attention than unfunded research. Moreover, the open access (OA) modalities gold and hybrid have the greatest advantages in citation and social attention due to funding. Research limitations/implications Specific topics were studied in a specific period. Studying other topics and/or different time periods might result in different findings. Practical implications When funding to publish in open or hybrid access journals is not available, it is advisable to self-archiving the pre-print or post-print version in a freely accessible repository. Social implications Although cautiously, it is also advisable to consider the social impact of the research to complement the scientific impact in the evaluation of the research. Originality/value The joint evaluation of the effect of both funding and OA on social attention.