  Paper featured on the cover of a journal has more visibility in an issue
compared with other ordinary articles for both printed and electronic journal.
Does this kind of visibility guarantee more attention and greater impact of its
associated content than the non-cover papers? In this research, usage and
citation data of 60 issues of PLOS Biology from 2006 to 2010 are analyzed to
compare the attention and scholarly impact between cover and non-cover paper.
Our empirical study confirms that, in most cases, the group difference between
cover and non-cover paper is not significant for attention or impact. Cover
paper is not the best one, nor at the upper level in one issue considering the
attention or the citation impact. Having a paper featured on the cover of a
journal may be a source of pride to researchers, many institutions and
researchers would even release news about it. However, a paper being featured
on the cover of a journal doesn't guarantee more attention and greater impact.

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