From Connections to Citations: Assessing the Influence of Academic Social Networking (ASN) Sites on Scholarly Impact in Bangladesh

Abstract

This study investigates how academic social networking site (ASNS) activity influences scholarly citations and, in turn, impacts university rankings. Data were gathered through an online survey targeting university faculty in Bangladesh via email and Facebook groups, such as the Public University Teachers Forum and University Teachers' Association of Bangladesh (UTAB). SmartPLS-4 software, structural equation modelling (SEM), was utilised to test hypotheses after confirming the validity and reliability of the survey items. The study discovered that most faculty members used ResearchGate (N = 363) and Google Scholar (N = 360), often checking citations per publication. The scholarly impact is measured through ASNS activities and citations, which play a crucial role in university rankings. Moreover, the reliability was verified with composite reliability and Cronbach's alpha surpassing 0.700, and validity was evaluated through discriminant and convergent validity. The SEM analysis indicated that ASNS activity positively impacts academic visibility, knowledge dissemination, scholarly partnership opportunities and career development (p = 0.000). The researcher developed three hypotheses to investigate the mediating function of ASNS engagement in the links among academic visibility, knowledge dissemination, collaborative opportunities, professional networking, academic resource accessibility and career development. However, the findings demonstrated that ASNS engagement only facilitated the connection between research production and academic visibility. By improving faculty profiles, encouraging collaborations and expanding the publication of research, universities can use ASNS techniques to raise their global rankings. Considering elements like institutional rules, research funding and collaborative networks, future studies should examine the specific ways in which ASNS activities affect university rankings globally.