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On full text download and citation distributions in scientific-scholarly journals

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  • Henk F. Moed
  • Gali Halevi

Abstract

type="main"> A statistical analysis of full text downloads of articles in Elsevier's ScienceDirect covering all disciplines reveals large differences in download frequencies, their skewness, and their correlation with Scopus-based citation counts, between disciplines, journals, and document types. Download counts tend to be 2 orders of magnitude higher and less skewedly distributed than citations. A mathematical model based on the sum of two exponentials does not adequately capture monthly download counts. The degree of correlation at the article level within a journal is similar to that at the journal level in the discipline covered by that journal, suggesting that the differences between journals are, to a large extent, discipline specific. Despite the fact that in all studied journals download and citation counts per article positively correlate, little overlap may exist between the set of articles appearing in the top of the citation distribution and that with the most frequently downloaded ones. Usage and citation leaks, bulk downloading, differences between reader and author populations in a subject field, the type of document or its content, differences in obsolescence patterns between downloads and citations, and different functions of reading and citing in the research process all provide possible explanations of differences between download and citation distributions.

Suggested Citation

  • Henk F. Moed & Gali Halevi, 2016. "On full text download and citation distributions in scientific-scholarly journals," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 67(2), pages 412-431, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jinfst:v:67:y:2016:i:2:p:412-431
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/asi.23405
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Bikun Chen, 2018. "Usage pattern comparison of the same scholarly articles between Web of Science (WoS) and Springer," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 115(1), pages 519-537, April.
    2. Bikun Chen & Dannan Deng & Zhouyan Zhong & Chengzhi Zhang, 2020. "Exploring linguistic characteristics of highly browsed and downloaded academic articles," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(3), pages 1769-1790, March.
    3. Liwei Zhang & Jue Wang, 2021. "What affects publications’ popularity on Twitter?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(11), pages 9185-9198, November.
    4. Carlos Vílchez-Román & Arístides Vara-Horna, 2021. "Usage, content and citation in open access publication: any interaction effects?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(12), pages 9457-9476, December.
    5. Mike Thelwall, 2018. "Early Mendeley readers correlate with later citation counts," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 115(3), pages 1231-1240, June.
    6. Luis Javier Cabeza Ramírez & Sandra M. Sánchez-Cañizares & Fernando J. Fuentes-García, 2019. "Past Themes and Tracking Research Trends in Entrepreneurship: A Co-Word, Cites and Usage Count Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-32, June.
    7. Hu, Beibei & Ding, Yang & Dong, Xianlei & Bu, Yi & Ding, Ying, 2021. "On the relationship between download and citation counts: An introduction of Granger-causality inference," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2).
    8. Charles W. Fox, 2017. "Difficulty of recruiting reviewers predicts review scores and editorial decisions at six journals of ecology and evolution," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 113(1), pages 465-477, October.
    9. Mohammadamin Erfanmanesh & A. Noorhidawati & A. Abrizah, 2019. "What can Bookmetrix tell us about the impact of Springer Nature’s books," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 121(1), pages 521-536, October.
    10. Andrés Fernández-Ramos & Blanca Rodríguez-Bravo & Ángela Diez-Diez, 2023. "Use of scientific journals in Spanish universities: analysis of the relationship between citations and downloads in two university library consortia," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(4), pages 2489-2505, April.
    11. Liwen Vaughan & Juan Tang & Rongbin Yang, 2017. "Investigating disciplinary differences in the relationships between citations and downloads," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(3), pages 1533-1545, June.
    12. Yang Ding & Xianlei Dong & Yi Bu & Bin Zhang & Kexin Lin & Beibei Hu, 2021. "Revisiting the relationship between downloads and citations: a perspective from papers with different citation patterns in the case of the Lancet," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(9), pages 7609-7621, September.
    13. Mojisola Erdt & Htet Htet Aung & Ashley Sara Aw & Charlie Rapple & Yin-Leng Theng, 2017. "Analysing researchers’ outreach efforts and the association with publication metrics: A case study of Kudos," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(8), pages 1-25, August.
    14. Anthony Breitzman, 2021. "The relationship between web usage and citation statistics for electronics and information technology articles," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(3), pages 2085-2105, March.
    15. Hernández-Escobedo, Quetzalcoatl & Perea-Moreno, Alberto-Jesús & Manzano-Agugliaro, Francisco, 2018. "Wind energy research in Mexico," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 719-729.
    16. János József Tóth & Gergő Háló & Manuel Goyanes, 2023. "Beyond views, productivity, and citations: measuring geopolitical differences of scientific impact in communication research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(10), pages 5705-5729, October.

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