# Most-cited Social Sciences papers of 2018, with free PDFs

The 25 most-cited Social Sciences research papers published in 2018, ranked by citations in OpenAlex, with their original abstracts and free PDFs where available.

1. [The spread of true and false news online](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W2790166049) · 8,779 citations
2. [Global, regional, and national age-sex-specific mortality for 282 causes of death in 195 countries and territories, 1980–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W2899736836) · 8,516 citations · Free PDF
3. [AI4People—An Ethical Framework for a Good AI Society: Opportunities, Risks, Principles, and Recommendations](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W2902634493) · 4,619 citations · Free PDF
4. [Making Neighborhood-Disadvantage Metrics Accessible — The Neighborhood Atlas](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W2810551427) · 3,294 citations
5. [The Origins and Consequences of Affective Polarization in the United States](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W2904152473) · 3,292 citations
6. [Characterising and justifying sample size sufficiency in interview-based studies: systematic analysis of qualitative health research over a 15-year period](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W2900619723) · 3,101 citations · Free PDF
7. [Forecasting life expectancy, years of life lost, and all-cause and cause-specific mortality for 250 causes of death: reference and alternative scenarios for 2016–40 for 195 countries and territories](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W2897257410) · 3,002 citations · Free PDF
8. [Influencer Marketing: How Message Value and Credibility Affect Consumer Trust of Branded Content on Social Media](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W2899351518) · 2,766 citations
9. [The use of focus group discussion methodology: Insights from two decades of application in conservation](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W2782625861) · 2,610 citations · Free PDF
10. [The development of student feedback literacy: enabling uptake of feedback](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W2801630847) · 2,371 citations
11. [COSMIN methodology for evaluating the content validity of patient-reported outcome measures: a Delphi study](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W2790424199) · 2,304 citations · Free PDF
12. [Journal article reporting standards for qualitative primary, qualitative meta-analytic, and mixed methods research in psychology: The APA Publications and Communications Board task force report.](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W2790487467) · 2,257 citations
13. [Good Gig, Bad Gig: Autonomy and Algorithmic Control in the Global Gig Economy](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W2887734062) · 2,169 citations
14. [Exposure to opposing views on social media can increase political polarization](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W2889127731) · 1,889 citations
15. [Global Evidence on Economic Preferences*](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W2922811975) · 1,708 citations
16. [Social Security Bulletin](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W2909877980) · 1,696 citations
17. [Flexible Coding of In-depth Interviews: A Twenty-first-century Approach](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W2895484796) · 1,612 citations
18. [Data Colonialism: Rethinking Big Data’s Relation to the Contemporary Subject](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W2889315866) · 1,578 citations · Free PDF
19. [Women and men in the informal economy: a statistical picture](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W3022390072) · 1,576 citations
20. [The disinformation order: Disruptive communication and the decline of democratic institutions](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W2796536780) · 1,561 citations
21. [The State of US Health, 1990-2016](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W2796615944) · 1,516 citations · Free PDF
22. [What's In A Name? Malay Seals As Onomastic Sources](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W1521843029) · 1,496 citations
23. [Associations between loneliness and perceived social support and outcomes of mental health problems: a systematic review](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W2805201924) · 1,491 citations
24. [QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY IN SOCIAL SCIENCES AND RELATED SUBJECTS](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W2801023641) · 1,476 citations
25. [Engagement Matters: Student Perceptions on the Importance of Engagement Strategies in the Online Learning Environment](https://nerdi.pages.dev/paper/W2792695307) · 1,433 citations

Canonical page: https://nerdi.pages.dev/papers/social-sciences/most-cited-2018