Which papers cited which tweets? An exploratory analysis based on Scopus data

•This is the first study that investigates publications that have cited tweets.•In the complete Scopus database, we found less than 7,000 publications that have cited tweets•Most cited tweets do not seem to be cited because of any cognitive influence they might have had on studies.•Most cited tweets seem to have been study objects.•The COVID-19/corona pandemic seems to be the single largest topic of the publications that have cited tweets.