Urology Reach on Social Media: Appealing to Future Potential Applicants
Abstract
Objective On average, internet users aged 16 to 29 years spend 3 hours per day on social media platforms. Previous
research has identified social media as an important tool for prospective applicants in the age of virtual residency
interviews, but no study to date has included TikTok as a social media platform of interest. TikTok is the fastestgrowing
social network in the United States, and there were predictions it would reach 1.8 billion users by the end of
2022. This study seeks to understand the difference in reach of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok to inform
medical student engagement efforts.
Methods A binary (Yes/No) poll was posted on MCG Urology accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and
TikTok. The poll asked the question “Are you a medical student?” and was open for viewing and/or response on each
platform for 24 hours. The number of total views and the number and percentage of respondents were recorded for
each application. Engagement was determined by the percentage of viewers who responded to the poll.
Results A total of 3038 views and 839 responses were collected from all social media platforms. TikTok had the
highest number of views (1838) and responses (617) but low engagement (33.56%). The highest percentage of “Yes”
responses was on Twitter (61%); however, Twitter had the lowest engagement of 7.2%. Results of a chi-square test
showed that while the total raw number of medical students reached was highest on TikTok, of all those who engaged
with the poll, there were statistically significantly more medical students on Twitter (P < 0.0001).
Conclusions Medical student outreach can be successfully conducted through social media. Twitter allows for
engagement with a statistically significantly larger proportion of medical students, and TikTok allows access to a
grossly larger audience of medical students. Urology residency programs should consider the utility of both Twitter
and TikTok for student outreach.
The Société International d'Urologie (SIU), which owns and publishes the Société International d'Urologie Journal (SIUJ), does not require authors of papers published in the journal to transfer copyright. Instead, we ask authors to grant an exclusive licence that allows us to publish the article in SIUJ (and any derivative or related products or publications) and that allows us to sub-license such rights and exploit all subsidiary rights.
Authors retain the right to use their own articles for their own non-commercial purposes without seeking explicit permission from SIU.
The SIUJ publication licence expressly defines “non-commercial” as “not primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” Although no activity is completely disconnected from commercial activity, the following are generally considered to be non-commercial uses:
- Reproduction of a reasonable number (no more than 100) of print copies of the published paper for personal use (e.g., sharing with colleagues, including in grant applications).
- Posting a copy of the published version of the paper on the author’s own or their institution’s website. The article must be accompanied by this statement: ‘This article has been published in the SIUJ: [full citation; link]’.
- Inclusion of the paper in a course pack, with a maximum of 100 copies to be used in the author’s institution. The copies must include the following acknowledgement: ‘This article has been published in the SIUJ: [full citation; link].’
As the distinction between commercial and non-commercial is not always clear, authors are strongly advised to seek permission from SIU for any use that may be considered to have a commercial aspect.
We ask the corresponding author to read the terms of the licence and then to grant this exclusive licence on behalf of all authors by indicating agreement to the following statement:
The corresponding author has the right to grant on behalf of all authors and does grant on behalf of all authors, an exclusive licence on a worldwide basis to the SIU and its licensees to permit this article (if accepted) to be published in the SIUJ and any other SIU products and publications and to exploit all subsidiary rights, as set out in our licence agreement.
Review and Decision
Most submissions will be reviewed by a senior editor within 2 weeks. Many manuscripts will be rejected at this point for a variety of reasons, including subject matter outside the scope of the SIUJ, flawed design, discredited or outdated methodology, poor organization or presentation, failure to conform to ethical requirements, and apparent plagiarism.The remaining manuscripts will be sent for peer review. The SIUJ uses a single-blind process: reviewers know the identity of the authors, but the authors are not told who has reviewed their manuscript, and SIUJ ensures that potentially identifying information is removed from comments sent to them. Reviewers are asked to make their recommendations within 10 days, after which a senior/specialist editor will consider their comments and recommend provisional acceptance dependent on satisfactory revision, acceptance without revision, or rejection. Authors should receive a final decision within 4 to 6 weeks of submission.
