Do cover papers get better citations and usage counts? An analysis of 42 journals in cell biology

Research on the impact of and attention given to journal covers is a crucial research topic in academia. This study investigated whether a paper featured on the cover of a journal receives more citations and higher usage than non-cover papers. Unlike previous studies that focused on just a few prestigious journals, we analyzed the citations and usage counts of 3196 cover and 36,652 non-cover papers published in 42 cell biology journals from 2011 to 2015. To address the above question, four new indicators were used to compare descriptive differences in stratified sets, and both linear regression model analysis and robustness testing were applied to further explore the relationships. Our main results showed that being a cover paper has positive and significant relationships both with citations and usage counts. Moreover, additional analyses show that the two relationships are strengthened in top-tier journals, and the main effects remain robust when we consider the influence of author ability. This new exploration of factors relevant for citations and usage counts in this empirical analysis consolidates and broadens the findings of previous studies.