Comparing downloads, mendeley readership and google scholar citations as indicators of article performance

Abstract

This single journal article level indicator study investigated the relationship between download usage statistics, Mendeley readership scores and Google Scholar citation counts. The 378 articles published in the Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries (EJISDC) in the 14-year period 2000 to 2013 were examined. Results showed that all 378 articles were downloaded and had Mendeley readers. Of the 378 articles, 359 (94.97%) articles received Google Scholar citations and 19 (5.03%) articles received no citations. For the 359 cited articles, the average Google Scholar citations per article were 28.82. The average EJISDC downloads were 7440.69, the average Mendeley readership was 19.30 and Google Scholar citations were 27.36. The most influential articles in the EJISDC were identified by ranking and by comparing the top 20 articles by downloads, Mendeley readership and Google Scholar citations. The leading authors were identified using the top 20 ranking and comparing it to the most productive authors. For this journal, the results seem to indicate that the highest correlations (Spearman correlation coefficient) were between Google Scholar citations and downloads, a slightly lower correlation between Google Scholar citations and Mendeley readership, and the lowest correlation was between downloads and Mendeley readership.