Last but not Least: Additional Positional Effects on Citation and Readership in arXiv

Last but not Least: Additional Positional Effects on Citation and Readership in arXiv

13 Oct 2010 | Asif-ul Haque; Paul Ginsparg
This study investigates the impact of article position in daily announcements on citations and readership in arXiv, focusing on the "reverse-visibility" effect for articles near the end of announcements and the "procrastination" effect for submissions close to the daily deadline. The research finds that articles near the end of the list receive a boost in both short-term readership and long-term citations, comparable to the "visibility" effect observed for articles near the beginning. For one subcommunity, there is also a "procrastination" effect, where articles submitted shortly before the deadline have higher citation rates than those accidentally placed at the end. The study considers and eliminates geographic effects as potential causes, suggesting other possible factors such as "oblivious" and "nightowl" effects. The results show that the majority of readers access announcements in the standard forward order, but a significant portion access them in reverse order via the /list/.../recent URL. This reverse order access may contribute to the "reverse-visibility" effect. The study also finds that submissions near the end of the list, particularly those submitted close to the deadline, show statistically significant differences in citation rates compared to middle and early positions. For hep-th, the median citation differences between submissions in the 1-E and 1-NE positions, and between those in the L-NL and L-L positions, are significant at the 1% level. However, the difference between the 1-E and L-L positions is not significant even at the 10% level. The study also examines geographic/timezone effects, finding that Asian submissions, which are concentrated near the middle of the list, have lower median citations compared to European and North American submissions. However, these Asian submissions do not add a geographic bias to the positional effects analyzed. The study concludes that the citation effects observed are due to unintentional properties of the announcement system and suggests that a personalized system could mitigate the global resonance phenomenon of daily announcements. The findings have implications for the use of citation and readership metrics in assessing individuals and organizations.This study investigates the impact of article position in daily announcements on citations and readership in arXiv, focusing on the "reverse-visibility" effect for articles near the end of announcements and the "procrastination" effect for submissions close to the daily deadline. The research finds that articles near the end of the list receive a boost in both short-term readership and long-term citations, comparable to the "visibility" effect observed for articles near the beginning. For one subcommunity, there is also a "procrastination" effect, where articles submitted shortly before the deadline have higher citation rates than those accidentally placed at the end. The study considers and eliminates geographic effects as potential causes, suggesting other possible factors such as "oblivious" and "nightowl" effects. The results show that the majority of readers access announcements in the standard forward order, but a significant portion access them in reverse order via the /list/.../recent URL. This reverse order access may contribute to the "reverse-visibility" effect. The study also finds that submissions near the end of the list, particularly those submitted close to the deadline, show statistically significant differences in citation rates compared to middle and early positions. For hep-th, the median citation differences between submissions in the 1-E and 1-NE positions, and between those in the L-NL and L-L positions, are significant at the 1% level. However, the difference between the 1-E and L-L positions is not significant even at the 10% level. The study also examines geographic/timezone effects, finding that Asian submissions, which are concentrated near the middle of the list, have lower median citations compared to European and North American submissions. However, these Asian submissions do not add a geographic bias to the positional effects analyzed. The study concludes that the citation effects observed are due to unintentional properties of the announcement system and suggests that a personalized system could mitigate the global resonance phenomenon of daily announcements. The findings have implications for the use of citation and readership metrics in assessing individuals and organizations.
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