Harnessing user library statistics for research evaluation and knowledge domain visualization

Peter Kraker, Christian Körner, Kris Jack, Michael Granitzer

Abstract: Social reference management systems provide a wealth of information that can be used for the analysis of science. In this paper, we examine whether user library statistics can produce meaningful results with regards to science evaluation and knowledge domain visualization. We are conducting two empirical studies, using a sample of library data from Mendeley, the world's largest social reference management system. Based on the occurrence of references in users' libraries, we perform a large-scale impact factor analysis and an exploratory co-readership analysis. Our preliminary findings indicate that the analysis of user library statistics can produce accurate, timely, and content-rich results. We find that there is a significant relationship between the impact factor and the occurrence of references in libraries. Using a knowledge domain visualization based on co-occurrence measures, we are able to identify two areas of topics within the emerging field of technology-enhanced learning.