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Back to all metricsViews per Publication indicates the average usage impact of an entity’s publications: how many views have this entity’s publications received on average? Views per Publication is calculated analogously to Citations per Publication.
Views per Publication is a:
- Usage Impact metric
Views per Publication may be displayed in a chart or table with months and/or years:
- In SciVal, the year used is based on the date on which items became available online; this may be different to the official publication date. They do not refer to the years in which publications were viewed
- Benchmark the average usage impact of publications within a body of work or entity
- Compare the average visibility of publications of entities of different sizes, but in related disciplines, such as Researchers working in a similar Research Area
- Showcase the performance of entities that have published a few highly viewed papers that will have a positive effect on the average of the entire data set
- Give an early indication of interest in output that has recently become available, for example in the very early stages of a new strategy, or of early-career researchers
- Showcase the engagement of the whole research community, and not only the two-thirds who publish and therefore cite. The one-third which does not tend to publish includes large numbers of undergraduate and graduate students, as well as researchers operating in the corporate sector.
- Demonstrate interest in output produced in disciplines with low citation potential, such as clinical research and the arts and humanities that are generally well read but poorly cited
- Benchmarking the usage of entities with distinct disciplinary profiles:
- The average usage between disciplines is variable and it is not advisable to use this metric to compare entities in distinct disciplines without accounting for these differences.
- When comparing entities made up of a mixture of disciplines, such as an interdisciplinary collaboration network, it is advised to apply a Research Area filter to focus on one field that is common between all the entities, or to select Field-Weighted Views Impact which will take this into account.
- Revealing the extent to which each of an entity’s outputs are viewed, since one or a few publications with a very high number of views can conceal a sizeable body of unviewed or poorly viewed material
- There may be gaps in output in the database coverage:
- For Scopus usage, this will mainly apply when entities are small, and a single missing publication may have a significant negative impact on apparent usage.
- The only way to account for this is to be vigilant; consider also limiting the use of Views per Publication to comparing larger data sets in the same discipline where gaps in the database coverage likely have a similar effect on all entities being viewed and do not invalidate the comparison.
- Entities are small, such that the metric may fluctuate significantly and appear unstable over time, even when there is complete database coverage. Views per Publication calculates an average value, and is strongly influenced by outlying publications in a small data set.
- The people who will use the metrics do not like to see a trend that “dips” in recent years:
- This typically happens with Views per Publication because the most recent publications have had less time to receive views than older ones. Users are advised to use Field-Weighted Views Impact to avoid this drop, if it is of concern.
- Field-Weighted Views Impactopens in new tab/window, which is a complement to Views per Publication and takes into account behavioral differences between disciplines. Field-Weighted Views Impact also avoids the “dip” in recent years due to the most recent publications having had less time to receive views than older ones.
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