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   From: alt.fan.jai-maharaj@googlegroups.com   
      
   Academics Write Papers Arguing Over How Many People Read   
   (And Cite) Their Papers   
      
   Studies about reading studies go back more than two   
   decades   
      
   By Rose Eveleth   
   Smithsonian, smithsonian.com  smithsonianmag.com   
   March 25, 2014   
      
   There are a lot of scientific papers out there. One   
   estimate puts the count at 1.8 million articles published   
   each year, in about 28,000 journals. Who actually reads   
   those papers? According to one 2007 study, not many   
   people: half of academic papers are read only by their   
   authors and journal editors, the study's authors write.    
      
   But not all academics accept that they have an audience   
   of three. There's a heated dispute around academic   
   readership and citation -- enough that there have been   
   studies about reading studies going back for more than   
   two decades.   
      
   In the 2007 study, the authors introduce their topic by   
   noting that "as many as 50% of papers are never read by   
   anyone other than their authors, referees and journal   
   editors." They also claim that 90 percent of papers   
   published are never cited. Some academics are unsurprised   
   by these numbers. "I distinctly remember focusing not so   
   much on the hyper-specific nature of these research   
   topics, but how it must feel as an academic to spend so   
   much time on a topic so far on the periphery of human   
   interest," writes Aaron Gordon at Pacific Standard.   
   "Academia’s incentive structure is such that it’s better   
   to publish something than nothing," he explains, even if   
   that something is only read by you and your reviewers.    
      
   But not everybody agrees these numbers are fair. The   
   claim that half of papers are never cited comes first   
   from a paper from 1990. "Statistics compiled by the   
   Philadelphia-based Institute for Scientific Information   
   (ISI)indicate that 55% of the papers published between   
   1981 and 1985 in journals indexed by the institute   
   received no citations at all in the 5 years after they   
   were published," David P. Hamilton wrote in Science.    
      
   In 2008, a team found that the problem is likely getting   
   worse. "As more journal issues came online, the articles   
   referenced tended to be more recent, fewer journals and   
   articles were cited, and more of those citations were to   
   fewer journals and articles."   
      
   Continues at:   
      
   http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/half-academic-studies-a   
   e-never-read-more-three-people-180950222/?no-ist   
      
   Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi   
   Om Shanti   
      
   http://bit.do/jaimaharaj   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)