Table 2.
Data collection methods.
| Article | Date collected | Type of tweets or accounts | Keyword selectiona,b | Data source | Retrieval precision | Retrieval recall |
| [8] | March 22 to June 27, 2015 | Tweets about the California Department of Public Health “Still Blowing Smoke” media campaign about the harms of e-cigarettes and the pro–e-cigarette campaign “Not Blowing Smoke” |
#stillblowingsmoke, stillblowingsmoke, “still blowing smoke”, stillblngsmoke, “still blng smoke”, #notblowingsmoke, notblowingsmoke, “not blowing smoke”, notblngsmoke, “not blng smoke”, @CAPublicHealth |
Gnip | 97.5% | NRc |
| [25] | May 1, 2013, to May 1, 2014 | E-cigarettes | vaping, vape, vaper, vapers, vapin, vaped, evape, vaporing, e-cig*, ecig*, e-pen, epen, e-juice, ejuice, e-liquid, eliquid, cloud chasing, cloudchasing, deeming AND regulation, deeming AND FDA, deemed AND FDA, deem* AND FDA | Gnip | 59.23% | NR |
| [26] | July 1, 2008, to February 28, 2013 | E-cigarettes |
55 keywords (only examples reported): general e-cigarette terms (eg, electronic cigarette, eCig), specific brand names (eg, blu, NJoy, green smoke), and terms about e-cigarette use (eg, vaping) Excluded words related to tobacco or drugs (only examples reported): marijuana, hookah |
Radian6 | 91% | 93% |
| [27] | December 5, 2011, to July 17, 2012 (15-day intervals) | Tobacco | cig*, nicotine, smok*, tobacco; hookah, shisha, waterpipe, e-juice, e-liquid, vape and vaping |
Twitter’s Streaming APId |
57.25% | 95%-99% |
| [28] | January 1 to December 31, 2014 | E-cigarettes and smoking cessation |
E-cigarette keywords: vaping, vaper, vapes, vapers, e-cigarette, e-cig, mod, eGo, mod, RBA, RDA, vape, “vape pen”, “e-hookah”, “e-pipe”, “e-shisha”, “hookah pen”, “vape pipe”, #vape #vapelife #vapor #vapeporn #vapenation #vapestars #vaperazzi #vapingstyle #vaperevolution #vapeswag #vapesirens #vaperscommunity #vapepics #vapesociety #socialvapers #vapefamily #vapefreedom #vapelove #vapers #vapstagram #vapelyfe #vapeshop #vapeon #vapestrong #girlswhovape #alldayvape #adv #vapersoul #VGOD #ecig #ecigarette Smoking cessation keywords: quit, stop, “quit smoking”, “stop smoking”, “quit cigarettes”, “smoke less”, “smoking less”, help, NRT, patch, lozenge, spray, gum, nicorette, nicotine, #quit #quitsmoking #quitsmokingcigarettes #Cessationnation Exclusion keywords: marijuana, weed, pot, dank, trees, green, cheeba, THC, cannabis, sativa, indica, bud, marihuana, MJ, “mary jane” |
Sysomos Heartbeat |
NR | NR |
| [29] | February 1 to April 30, 2014 | Blu e-cigarettes’ tweets and retweets | @blucigs | Twitter REST API | NR | NR |
| [30] | April 12 to May 10, 2014 | Hookah or shisha | hookah, #hookah, shisha, #shisha, hooka, #hooka, sheesha, #sheesha | Simply Measured |
99.56% | NR |
| [31] | November 1, 2011, to August 31, 2013 | Hookah, cigarettes, and cigars | cigar, cigars, cigarette, cigarettes, hookah, waterpipe, water pipe, shisha, sheesha | Twitter’s Streaming API |
NR | NR |
| [32] | October 4 to November 3, 2010 | Tobacco | Smoking, tobacco, cigarette, cigar, hookah, hooka | Twitter’s Search API |
NR | NR |
| [33] | May 1, 2012, to June 30, 2012 | E-cigarettes |
Keywords: e-cigarette, ecigarette, e-cig, ecig Additional keywords AND “cig” or “cigarette”: electronic, blu, njoy |
Gnip | >99% of a random sample of 500 tweets | NR |
| [34] | December 6, 2012, to June 20, 2013 | Tobacco or cessation price promotion |
Tobacco-related: cig(s), cigarette(s), smoking, tobacco, blu cigarette, njoy cigarette, ecig, e-cig, @blucig, e-cigarette, ecigarette, from:blucigs*, ecigs, e-cigs, ecigarettes, e-cigarettes, “green smoke”, “south beach smoke”, cartomizer, (atomizer OR atomizers) –perfume*, ehookah OR e-hookah, ejuice OR ejuices OR e-juice OR e-juices, eliquid OR eliquids OR e-liquid OR e-liquids, e-smoke OR e-smokes, (esmoke OR esmokes), eversmoke, “joye 510”, joye510, lavatube OR lavatubes, logicecig OR logicecigs, smartsmoker, smokestik OR smokestiks, “v2 cig” OR “v2 cigs” OR v2cig OR v2cigs, vaper OR vapers OR vaping, zerocig OR zerocigs, cartomizers, Vuse, MarkTen Price-related: Coupon(s), Promo(s), Promotions(s), Promotional, Discount(s)(ed), Save, Code(s) |
Gnip | 56.94% | NR |
| [35] | July 2014 | Slogans for the Dutch health campaign “Smoking is so outdated” (Roken kan echt niet meer) | #rokenkanechtnietmeer [#smokingissooutdated] | Twitter’s Search API |
NR | NR |
| [36] | December 2013 | Little cigars | Swisher Sweets, Black & Milds | Twitonomy | 67.50% | NR |
| [37] | September 2012 and January to May 2013 | Genetic information on smoking | genetic, smoking | NR | 49.1% | NR |
| [38] | August 2010 | Smoking cessation accounts | Searched for smoking cessation accounts using the following terms: “quit or stop smoking” or “smoking cessation” | NR | NR | NR |
| [39] | January 8-15, 2014 | Tweets about Chicago Department of Public Health’s e-cigarette Twitter campaign |
@ChiPublicHealth | twitteR package for R and NodeXL | NR | NR |
| [40] | January 2010 to January 2015 | E-cigarettes | vape, ecig, ecigarette, vaping, ejuice, vapers, drip AND tip, dripping, eliquid AND flavor, e AND juice, e AND liquid, smoke AND free, off AND cigarettes, ex AND smoker, no AND analogs, I AND quit | NR | NR | NR |
| [41] | January 2012 to December 2014 | E-cigarettes | e(-)cig, e(-)cigarette, electronic cigarette, etc | Twitter’s Streaming API | 81% to 90.8% for 4 groups of 500 randomly sampled automated tweets |
NR |
| [42] | September to December 2013 and March 2015 | E-cigarettes | Electronic-cigarette, e-cig, e-cigarette, e-juice, e-liquid, vape-juice, vape-liquid |
Twitter’s Streaming API and Twitter’s Firehose | 97.21% | 86.63% |
| [43] | April 21 to October 20, 2014 | Blu and V2 e-cigarettes’ tweets and retweets | @blucigs, @v2cigs | NR | 100% | NR |
| [44] | July 7 to 21, 2014 | Tweets about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Tips From Former Smokers campaign |
#cdctips, CDC AND smoking | Social Network Importer for NodeXL |
81.70% | NR |
| [45] | May 1, 2013, to May 1, 2014 | E-cigarettes | vaping, vape, vaper, vapers, vapin, vaped, evape, vaporing, e-cig*, ecig*, e-pen, epen, e-juice, ejuice, e-liquid, eliquid, cloud chasing, cloudchasing, deeming AND regulation, deeming AND FDA, deemed AND FDA, deem* AND FDA | Gnip | 59.23% | NR |
| [46] | March to June 2013 | Tobacco control program tweets during the months that the national CDC Tips smoking cessation campaign aired |
Google search for tobacco control programs using the terms “ tobacco program ” and “ quitline .” If the site included a link to a Twitter account, that
account was included. |
Radian6 | NR | NR |
| [47] | March 15 to June 9, 2012 | Tweets about the CDC’s Tips campaign |
Tobacco behavior: cig(s), cigarette(s), nicotine, smoke(s), smoker, smoking, tobacco Tobacco policy: @cdcgov, @cdctobaccofree, @drfriedencdc, @fdatobacco, @smokefreegov, antitobacco, antismoking, CDC, quitline, quitnow, secondhand+smoke, smokefree, smokefree.gov, tobaccofree Ad specific: #cdctips, amputation, amputee, Buerger’s+Disease, heart+attack, hole+neck, hole+throat, lung+cancer, stoma, stroke, throat+cancer Engagement: ad, commercial, campaign, PSA |
Gnip | 78.87% | 94% |
| [48] | February 5-12, 2014 | CVS Health-related tweets surrounding the announcement of ending tobacco sales |
#cvs, #cvsquits | Twitter’s Streaming API | 72.38% | NR |
| [49] | 50 most recent tweets from July 18, 2012 | Smoking cessation accounts | Searched for smoking cessation accounts using the terms: “quit smoking” and “smoking cessation” | NR | NR | NR |
| [50] | February 23 to April 9, 2015 | Exposure to secondhand e-cigarette aerosol | “secondhand vape” OR “secondhand vaping” OR “second-hand vape” OR “second-hand vaping” OR “vape smoke” OR “ecig smoke” OR “e-cig smoke” OR “e-cigarette smoke” OR “vape shs” OR “ecig shs” OR “vape secondhand smoke” OR “vape second-hand smoke” OR “esmoke” OR “e-smoke” |
NCapture | NR | NR |
aAsterisk (*) represents stemmed words; for example, cig* would capture all words beginning with cig.
bWords in italics were not keywords used for searches.
cNR: not reported.
dAPI: application programming interface.