How fast do scholarly papers get read by various user groups? A longitudinal and cross‐disciplinary analysis of the evolution of Mendeley readership - Fang - Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology - Wiley Online Library

Abstract:  To provide a dynamic perspective on the evolution of Mendeley readership, this study conducts an 8-year longitudinal analysis of approximately 3.4 million scholarly papers published in 2015. Mendeley readership data were collected annually from 2016 to 2023 for the sampled papers to analyze the temporal accumulation patterns of readership following publication. The results indicate that Mendeley readership exhibits a speed advantage compared to citations and a prevalence advantage compared to Twitter mentions, demonstrating both initial prevalence and sustained growth on a yearly basis. However, the patterns of accumulation vary across disciplines, with papers in Biomedical and Health Sciences showing the fastest accrual of extensive Mendeley readership data. Leveraging demographic data provided by Mendeley, this study further investigates how different user groups—categorized by academic status, disciplinary affiliation, and geographic location—engage with papers across various disciplines. The findings highlight Mendeley readership as a rapid and substantial altmetric, yet they also emphasize the need to interpret the nature of the attention captured by Mendeley readership with caution, considering its potential biases introduced by the varying engagement levels of different user groups across disciplines.

From the body of the paper: "The broadness, diversity, openness, and speed are often argued as significant advantages of altmetric data (Bornmann, 2014; Wouters & Costas, 2012). These advantages are framed under the assumption that altmetrics can measure a wide range of attention beyond academia towards diverse research outputs shortly after their publication, through openly accessible data. Among these advantages, speed is particularly noteworthy, as it highlights the rapid accumulation of altmetric data for newly published papers. This speed offers a more immediate evaluation of the attention directed at new research outputs, providing a timelier alternative to traditional citation metrics."