An altmetric analysis of ResearchGate profiles of physics researchers: A study of University of Delhi (India)

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to carry out an altmetric analysis of faculty members and research scholars of Department of Physics and Astrophysics, University of Delhi (India) (Univ.Delhi P&A) who are members of the academic social networking site ResearchGate. ReserachGate is a rich source of altmetric indictors such as publications, reads, profile views, citations, impact points, RGScore, followers and following, etc. The RGScore, unique to ResearchGate, was further explored in depth in the study.

Design/methodology/approach

The data were collected manually by visiting the profile pages of all the members who had an account in ResearchGate under Univ.Delhi P&A during the first week of July, 2016. The authors found a total of 173 members in ResearchGate from the department. Data were collected for publications, reads, profile views, citations, impact points, RGScore, followers and following from the profile pages of the members. Correlations were calculated amongst the metrics provided by ResearchGate to seek the nature of the relationship amongst the various ResearchGate metrics.

Findings

The analysis revealed that the publications added by researchers to their profiles were relatively low, as 28.32 per cent of the members had not added even a single publication to their profiles. Average reads acquired per person was found to be 909.49 and the median value of reads was found to be 95. Average citation per member in ResearchGate was found to be 414.60 and the median value was found to be 7. Majority of the researchers (45.09 per cent) had impact points in the range of 0.2-50. Most of the members (35.84 per cent) had followers in the range of 1-10. Majority of the members (52.02 per cent) had profile views in the range of 1-100. Most of the members (26.01 per cent) had RGScore equivalent to 0.01. The highest correlation of RGScore was found with publications added by researchers to their profiles, followed by correlation between RGScore and reads, correlation between RGscore and profile views, correlation between RGScore and number of Full Texts and correlation between RGScore and number of followers of a researcher.

Originality/value

Not much research has been conducted in the area of altmetrics, especially using ResearchGate as a source of altmetrics. The findings of the study help in understanding the validity of ResearchGate as a source of altmetrics for research evaluation in a developing country such as India. Also, the novel ResearchGate indicator RGScore has been evaluated in great depth and its relationship with other ResearchGate altmetric and bibliometric indicators has been established.

Citation

Shrivastava, R. and Mahajan, P. (2017), "An altmetric analysis of ResearchGate profiles of physics researchers: A study of University of Delhi (India)", Performance Measurement and Metrics, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 52-66. https://doi.org/10.1108/PMM-07-2016-0033