Reads
Reads are a straightforward way to see how often your research is being accessed on ResearchGate. Since citations can take time, reads offer an early indicator of interest in your work from both ResearchGate members and non-members.
You can find your read statistics on your profile's Stats tab. This section also provides valuable insights into your readers, including their country, institution, seniority, and discipline. Depending on your profile visibility settings, you may even see profiles of recent readers, allowing you to connect with those interested in your work. (Note: You'll only see readers if both you and the reader have enabled this visibility setting.)
How reads are calculated
We count and display reads for each publication, as well as for questions asked and answers added in Q&A.
For publications: A 'read' is counted when someone views the publication summary (title, abstract, authors), clicks on a linked figure (on the publication page or home feed), or views/downloads the full-text. To show deeper engagement, we also track 'full-text reads,' which count each time someone views or downloads the complete text of your publication.
For questions: A 'read' is counted when someone views the question.
For answers in Q&A: A 'read' is counted only when someone specifically looks at that particular answer.
To reflect the full reach of your work, we include reads from both logged-in ResearchGate members and logged-out readers.
To ensure accuracy, reads are not counted when you or your co-authors access your own publications, or when you view your own questions or answers. We also exclude artificial traffic sources like robots or bots, and we continuously work to improve our detection of such activity.
Seeing who your readers are
To view the identities of your readers, you first need to enable your reader visibility settings. Once enabled, others will see when you've read their work, and you'll see the profiles of readers who have also enabled these settings. Here's how to check:
Log in to your account.
Go to the Stats tab on your profile and click on the Reads tab.
If you have more than two readers, click on View more researchers under People who read your publications.
Viewing your readers by publication
To see which publications your readers are engaging with:
Log in to your account.
Go to the Stats tab on your profile and click on the Reads tab.
Under Reader demographics for the last 8 weeks, click on View individual publication stats.
Alternatively, you can go directly to your individual publication pages, click on Stats, and scroll down to see your readers (if applicable).
Viewing your readers by demographics
Log in to your account.
Go to the Stats tab on your profile and click on the Reads tab.
Under Reader demographics for the last 8 weeks click on View all demographics.
Understanding your reader demographics
Your read demographics provide a breakdown of who has read your work over the past 8 weeks (when this information is available).
Reads by country and institution are based on the affiliations or locations readers have listed on their ResearchGate profiles.
Reads by discipline are based on the disciplines readers have added to their profiles. If a reader has multiple disciplines, they might be counted more than once (e.g., one read for Software Engineering and one for Computer Architecture if both are listed).
Data on seniority level comes from information readers have added to their profiles. In some cases, we may also infer seniority levels based on other profile data, such as position, degree, and years since first publication, to provide a reasonable estimate.
Why your reads might decrease
We are always working on detecting unusual activity patterns that could skew your stats. Several factors can lead to a decrease in your read statistics:
Research item changes: The reads counter on your profile's Stats tab sums the reads of your individual research items. If an item is removed from your Research tab, deleted from ResearchGate, or merged with a duplicate, its associated reads will also be removed.
Improved accuracy: We continuously work to provide a more accurate picture of the attention your research receives. This includes removing traffic from artificial sources (like crawlers and bots) that remotely load pages and download content. Reads are also not counted when you or your co-authors access your own publications, or when you view your own questions, answers, or figures.
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