封面故事：期刊封面如何放大癌症研究的传播力

Nowadays online communication and social media have become powerful amplifiers of scientific visibility and influence. Increasingly, scientists rely on decentralized networks and social media, such as X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, and other online platforms. They're used to disseminate findings, build collaborations, and engage broader audiences beyond traditional institutional channels. Emerging evidence suggests that scholarly work promoted online attains greater visibility and citation impact, underscoring the growing role of strategic digital engagement in shaping research dissemination and recognition.In this study, we investigated whether visual prominence through cover selection in Nature Cancer predicts enhanced article visibility and impact. We analyzed all publications from the six volumes of Nature Cancer (2020-present), comparing engagement metrics between articles featured on the journal's cover and those that were not. Metrics included article accesses, Altmetric scores, and citation counts. Altmetric data were further used to quantify public engagement through mentions in news outlets, policy documents, and online platforms.Statistical comparisons revealed that cover-featured articles persistently achieved significantly higher engagement across all dimensions: readership (t = 3.78, p = 0.00026), online attention (t = 2.49, p = 0.014), and scholarly citations (t = 3.57, p = 0.00055). Strong positive monotonic correlations were observed among accesses, Altmetric attention, and citations (Spearman ρ = 0.68-0.80), indicating that articles attracting online attention tend to be more widely read and cited. Temporal analyses from 2020 to 2024 showed that the “cover advantage” persisted annually and was most pronounced between 2021 and 2023, coinciding with the journal's rapid audience expansion. Even after accounting for citation-time bias, cover-selected papers consistently exhibited approximately twice the citation rate, 1.6× higher Altmetric scores, and 1.7× more accesses compared to non-cover articles.Our findings demonstrate that visual prominence through cover selection predicts measurable scientific impact. The results highlight a robust and sustained “cover advantage,” suggesting that visibility-enhancing editorial decisions can substantially amplify both digital and scholarly reach. Future work should examine potential confounders, such as article type and topicality, to further elucidate the mechanisms linking visual presentation to scientific influence.