Dear professor Chen,

Your response is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Edward

It probably means the paper explains so much that the readers don't have any questions left.

Dear Professor Marjanovic,

Thank you very much for your response! Your input is very valuable to my query:)

I would say a high number of recommendations is an indicator for a good paper.

To Professor Perger,

Thank you for your reply! I would also agree that a high number of recommendations indicate a paper's value. However, after reading various papers in different taxonomies of science (including my own) on RG, I have found that papers that have acquired a higher amount of reads and recommendations are accompanied by various amounts of comments. Therefore, the consensus so far based on responses to this question is that recommendations and reads convey the quality of a paper, but this leads me to intuitively ask what do the proportional number of written responses (i.e. comments) indicate on the general perception and level of that quality of the work. Moreover, does a higher or lower amount of comments indicate the potential translation of a paper's quality to it's influence on the scientific community?

Regards,

Edward

Edward, call me Robert. I am currently commenting on a paper that addresses the question if new species can be established based on photographs. The number of comments is likely high not because of the good or bad quality of the paper, but it touches an important question that can't be answered with yes or no.

In case there is something relevant for my work in a paper, in a positive or negative way, I am going to cite it. I would say the number of citations is a much better indicator for relevance or quality, but the comments section in RG may become important one day.

And who knows, how many papers that may appear unimportant (and have no recommendations or comments) today can become important someday...

If I were a professor, I'd mention that on my profile. :-)

My opinion that comment is for:

- Congratulation the authers

- Confirmation of recommendation

- Ask the authers about the their work

- Suggest further work

- Criticism the work

......

I mean comments may be positive or negative, while recommendations mean positive.

Best wishes for all

I think High Number of readers and recommendations speaks good about the paper.

I agree generally that a high number of reads and recommendations speak good about the paper, especially the latter. While a high number of citations may also be a good indication of the quality of the paper one must bear in mind that unless one reads the actual paper which cites the relevant publication one will never know whether this is a good indicator of the publication as some citations may be of a negative nature, challenging or opposing a finding or conclusion. Such criticisms will come from various writers in many publications resulting in a large number of citations. Recommendations are more important than reads and both are more important than citations. This is my viewpoint and can be challenged.

I would like to sincerely thank everyone thus far ( Robert Perger, David Marjanovic, Mohannad Husain Al-Sherrawi, Rajendra D. Shinde, and Ahmed Thandar) for the input to my question. Every one of your answers are enriching and helpful!

All the Blessing,

Edward

Not necessarily.

Regards

Recommendations is good indicator of your paper value

A higher number of recommendations is an indicator of a good paper.

To all of my colleagues,

I wish that I had sufficient time to acknowledge everyone's individaul response to my question. Thus, I must express my sincerest gratitude for eveyone's wonderful input! Everyone's response is satisfying to my query and I hope that it continues to give clarity to everyone who may have a similar inquisition.

With kindest regards,

Edward

One thing is certain: as Oscar Wilde said, "The only thing worse than being talked about, is not being talked about."

In ResearchGate terms, a read with no comment is better than no read at all!

@Andrew VZ Brower

This is definitely true! Thank you for your input!

Edward

In my opinion, neither reads nor comments or recommendations are to be considered a measure of quality - all of them are dependent of many (often contradictory) circumstances, attitudes, sympathies, policies &c., &c., &c. (and even the "quality" itself does not mean the same for everybody...)!

A high number of reads and comments can actually mean that the paper is so bad, poorly written, divisive or controversial that people continue to discuss it. I can point you to a very good example if you want.

High number of readers and recommendations may indicate the good value of the paper, but the invert are not always right.

Dear colleagues,

I apologize for my hiatus from my posted question, I've been engrossed in my work lately. @Vazrick Nazari, by all means what would be a good example? @ Hind S. Abdulhay, I thank you for your valuable input!

With kindest regard,

Edward

High number of reads without adequate number of recommendations means the article isn't well received. Typically, your the ratio of your recommendations to your read should be greater than 10%.

Dear Dr.Al-Khafaji,

@ Amir W. Al-Khafaji

I sincerely thank you for your valuable input. It is very useful to my query.

With kindest regards,

Edward

A number of papers I've read on here have barely touched the subject or produce flawed research/analysis and yet acquire many recommendations (one appalling one I still remember vividly was on psychoanalysis and I can only think that those who recommended it know or knew nothing about the subject). A number produce research on popular subjects, acquiring a large number of readers and recommendations. Why not? They are ones on physics, especially those of a more esoteric and assertive nature, opinion based, those with an emotional content. I have come across interesting but difficult subject matter that achieve few to none.

I tend to recommend papers that spur the imagination.

You are welcome Edward.

Stanley

You can always find exceptions but overall, the system works.

Amir

Certainly, high reads and recommendations for a particular paper shows its worth and value.

Generally high number of reads and recommendations for a paper show that paper is good. But i would like to point that at RG your paper is read by so many persons of other stream/discipline and most of the time they recommend it. So in my opinion high number of reads and recommendations for a paper at RG are of not so much importance.

Many times it is a manifestation of a "lazy buddy club".

Dennis

Dennis Mazur

Sometimes I hesitate to put a work in RG because it is not really at the level but I see a number of lectres :-) .... and sometimes I put a quality work but nothing happens :-(. It is quite difficult to answer correctly to this question.

To:

Dickson Adom

Mahesh Kumar

Dennis Mazur

Abderrahmane Khechekhouche

I would like to thank you all for your wonderful and insightful answers to my query.

With kindest regard,

Edward

Most of my papers don't receive any comments. It takes longer time to think about a comment than to press the button to recommend. The number of actual reads is important, but recommendations and comments don't mean much to me at least.

@Trevor John Hawkeswood

I sincerely thank you for your valuable reply!

Best,

Edward

Thank you Edward

Personally, I don't really care about comments, recommendations or citations or whether not my critics view my work as poor. Im only interested in getting my vast amount of field data published and sharing these researches with sincere followers.

Dear Professor @ Trevor John Hawkeswood,

Your statement presents a sublime motivation and perspective on the presentation of one's research on research gate and in general. It is important for any researcher's work to first get exposure. Any work of research must gain exposure prior to its reception by those in the respective field.

Thank you!

Edward

Thank you Edward, but unfortunately, Im not a Professor! Im rather an outcast here in Australia who pays for the overseas trips from my private practise as an environmental scientist and arborist! Im doing a Master degree at UNE, Armidale!

Most people don't have the time to comment here on every paper that is read unfortunately. If your paper doesn't get any or only few comments it really doesn't matter, the number of citations in the literature is much more important.

@ Trevor John Hawkeswood

I apologize for my delay in response and I thank you for your answer to my question. I'm sure that your perception on being an outcast is not shared by many my friend! I wish you the most success in your master's program as well! I agree that citations are important, however, as previously stated in an earlier post, citations can be both positive or negative. My view is that exposure is important for any research.

Edward