2017/12/22 by Zohreh Zahedi, Stefanie Haustein
Computer Science · Decision Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Altmetrics #Audience measurement #Citation #Citation analysis #Citation impact #Complex Network Analysis Techniques #Discipline #Set (abstract data type) #Web of science #Web visibility and informetrics #cs.DL #scientometrics and bibliometrics research
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.joi.2017.12.005
arxiv created 2017/12/22 · arxiv updated 2017/12/27 · openalex created_date 2018/01/05 · openalex publication_date 2018/01/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
In this paper we present a first large-scale analysis of the relationship between Mendeley readership and citation counts with particular documents bibliographic characteristics. A data set of 1.3 million publications from different fields published in journals covered by the Web of Science (WoS) has been analyzed. This work reveals that document types that are often excluded from citation analysis due to their lower citation values, like editorial materials, letters, or news items, are strongly covered and saved in Mendeley, suggesting that Mendeley readership can reliably inform the analysis of these document types. Findings show that collaborative papers are frequently saved in Mendeley, which is similar to what is observed for citations. The relationship between readership and the length of titles and number of pages, however, is weaker than for the same relationship observed for citations. The analysis of different disciplines also points to different patterns in the relationship between several document characteristics, readership, and citation counts. Overall, results highlight that although disciplinary differences exist, readership counts are related to similar bibliographic characteristics as those related to citation counts, reinforcing the idea that Mendeley readership and citations capture a similar concept of impact, although they cannot be considered as equivalent indicators.