Some complementary info:

1) It takes times to get indexed depending on the publisher;

2) Networking helps collaborations and increase citation count;

3) Chapters are not cited mainly because people need to buy them. You can circumvent this by sending courtesy copies via RG; and

4) Striving to get citations in publications indexed by Scopus and Web of Science. This one I learned the hard way.

I have a book chapter which has been read 3,800 times on ResearchGate but has only two citations. However, by checking the Stats breakdown, you realize that the full text has been read only 1,400 times. The first thing you might want to check, is how many full text reads did your research paper have?

The next thing is because of the nature of my book chapter, people who read it are probably undergraduate and graduate students researching for an assignment. Although this service is very important, it is less likely to translate into citations. Therefore, you need to check the primary audience of your research paper, are they active researchers or not?

I will give another example. Last year, I published two papers of the same type at almost the same time. To date, one has more than 10 citations and the other 2 (self-citations, since we extending on the work). The difference between the two papers was one was in a hot topic and the other in a highly specialized area.

The other reasons you may want to consider as well are:

1. Accessibility - can active researchers easily access your paper?

2. Easy to find - can active researchers find your manuscript in reliable databases such as Web of Science and SCOPUS?

3. Trustworthiness - is the research paper published in a reliable journal (researchers often avoid publications in predatory journals)?

Citation counting is a black hole, not clearly understood by many. Why citation counts vary for the same researcher's productivity in various databases, such as Research Gate, Google scholar and SCOPUS? Whereas one database includes the citations to the books, another database excludes the citations to the books. Even the same database may include the citations to the books for one researcher, and exclude the citations to the books for another researcher. All depends on the algorithmic manipulations of the databases, which are kept secret.

I'm not sure if we can say citation counts by indexing databases are kept secret. ResearchGate counts citations according to papers uploaded to ResearchGate. It doesn't differentiate between citations from books, journal articles and even predatory journals. Google Scholar is not a database as such but a search engine which searches the entire web. For an article to be considered a academic paper by Google Scholar it needs to follow a format which is clearly stated on its FAQ. Citation counts by reputable databases such as SCOPUS, SCI, SCIE, and SSCI only counts those from publications that they have evaluated and approved. It is citation counts from these databases that should really matter to anyone who thinks citation counts are important.

Hi, without proper details, it is difficult to address the specifics.

In general, papers perform poorly both in terms of reading and getting citations.

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/04/23/academic-papers-citation-rates-remler/

There are so many variables that you have to taken into consideration:

a. reputation of the authors - first vs senior author - popularity, h-index

b. reputation of the publishers - standard vs predatory, indexed vs non-indexed

c. reputation of the journal - journal impact factor

d. results - local implications vs. global implications, what is the novelty in your research?

e. how hot the area in question - emerging ideas vs established concepts, meta-analysis, systematic review, novel findings, etc.

f. number of scientists working on in this area (less= possible to get less citations; too many= still possible to get less citations as they would cite high impact authors/papers).

and the list can go on.

What can you do about it, when it comes to your own paper?

You should have a good network (people in communication) within the area of your research. Communicate and share your work, i.e. send them copy of your work in question. Share in various social media platforms. If the work is really good, you don't have to ask people to take it or cite it. It will happen automatically. If you're still not sure, you could collaborate with some established scientists who have high impact. If your work is convincing, most certainly, they might agree as well! So, all boils down to one single big question: Is your work is so impressive enough that people are dying to cite your paper? i.e. ask yourself, why should someone cite your paper? Always, start with a good work. There shouldn't be any negotiation with regards to the quality of the work.

I hope you understand the bigger picture!

thank you

pandi

http://pandi-perumal.blogspot.com

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/04/23/academic-papers-citation-rates-remler/

Edmund's point is well taken. The details provided by him also explain what I intended to state. Citation counting game is akin to the story of six blind men describing an elephant. Each may be partly right, but all were wrong.

@ Edmund.

With regards to book chapters, researchers usually prefer not to cite it. This is because, it is customary that people will not write a 'breaking news' as a book chapter. That means, the original information must be available somewhere as a paper. People usually prefer, original references, reviews, and then book chapter in that order - if that is necessary to cite a chapter. Additional issue is, reference databases (e.g. endnote), requires manual input if we want to include chapter as references in our paper. Until otherwise, it is absolutely necessary, people avoid citing chapters. Certainly, the authors can self-cite if there is a need.

Of course, there is always a discrepancy with regards to the calculation of h-index.

See for example, see google scholar vs. researchgate:

https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=MO90ZXkAAAAJ&hl=en

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Seithikurippu_R_Pandi-Perumal/scores

SCOPUS and ORCID (or other databases) can be linked:

https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=7801638271

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8686-7259

If the databases are owned by a publisher, that will show different results than non-publisher databases.

Finally, citation counts are of course important for scientists for very many reasons. At the same time, it might not be an issue for an academician who's job involves more of administrative work or teaching assignments. One has to check with their affiliated institutions. It is not an individual choice. If you're a researcher, you're already in the game!

If someone wants to get hired or expect to get a promotion or a salary hike, they will take various things into considerations. Looking their h-index in one of these database will certainly give a quick snapshot of who they are! That will give a base for further exploration!

Yes, there are so many things wrong everywhere! That said, we have to start somewhere! where would that be?

To have good and prominent network to get citations and co-citations of common works within it.

Try also to adopt a good strategy in your research activity to expand your audience in different journals including chapters in edited books by self-citing adequately your own work.

The simple answer is that most times the reads are coming from a group of people who are in the formative stages of their careers. This includes young graduate researchers, people in higher education training such as educators, and others. Clearly, such people will read but will hardly author own articles and therefore cite at that stage.

The discussion here is so interesting.Thank you for your contribution. Seithikurippu R. Pandi-Perumal has explained it well.

Try to share your paper at different research-related platforms (i.e., RG, Academia.edu) and social media (i.e., LinkdIn). All the best.

The following link may answer all of your desired questions.

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2015/12/09/the-researchgate-score-a-good-example-of-a-bad-metric/

I think you look the amount of reading wrong, if you consider it to be directly correlation to citations.

Many different reasons might make people interested on your published context.

For example, the readers can come from other backgrounds than from academia, or they might be teachers looking for materials to be pointed out for their students and then students will read the papers too.

In short, I do not think you should anyhow expect referencing, based on how many times your articles have been read by Research Gate.

Best regards, Ari

Citation is necessary only if some one use some part of your work as an evidence to or argues to the readers during their own work presentation in the form of manuscript. Or if they extending your work or comparing your results with their own results etc.

How RG measure 'reads'

A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text.

I agree with dear Dr. Muhammad Ali, the readers will cite your paper if they extending your work or comparing your results with their results.

This generally happens with the too general and fancy Titles of articles. Then it is treated like a news paper, liked but not recommended!!

conference paper mostly based on the proposed solution of new problem so researcher work on conference papers to implement so one main reason conference papers have more citations.

Some complementary info:

1) It takes times to get indexed depending on the publisher;

2) Networking helps collaborations and increase citation count;

3) Chapters are not cited mainly because people need to buy them. You can circumvent this by sending courtesy copies via RG; and

4) Striving to get citations in publications indexed by Scopus and Web of Science. This one I learned the hard way.

Updating your Google Scholar, Microsoft, ORCID and Semantic Scholar profiles can help you.

If publications are not in Scopus, it may take a while.

You can also build groups in Mendeley and RG to gather literature and facilitate references.

Finally, establishing research partnerships can boost your citation count and enrich your work corpora.

Famous people do the previous things but sometimes they forget that life can be difficult in other parts of the world.

There is no relationship between paper reads and citations on RG.

Hi,

I think first of all "read" in Research Gate is not 100% same thing that some one would have actually been fully reading your paper.

Secondly, there is lot more audience in Research Gate, than just academics who would be reading and looking for publications to be able to give references to them. There is e.g. a large group of students gathering knowledge and finding newest research on different topics and teachers trying to find current work on different topics and so on.

All in all, you should not take the count of reads as direct indicator for possible added number of citations. It could be indicator for it, but the content of your publication is most important factor anyways.

Dear Pradeep Kumar T S as indicated by Arvind Singh and Ari Happonen reads on social media platforms such as RG do not mean that expert researchers really read your paper in detail. Even 1000+ researchers can have a quick look at your article without ever citing it. In order to get citations, the paper must be of significant interest to researchers working in the same area and having the same research interests. In other words, your paper must be relevant to new work published by other scientists.

No problem, maybe in future

Dear Pradeep Kumar T S first, many congratulations on the 1,000 reads. That is a wonderful achievement and you should feel very proud. Don't worry about the citations as these vary between disciplines. The fact that people are sufficiently interested in your work to read it shows the impact you are having. Keep going - the citations will come.

Very best wishes, James.

I definitely agree,

specially if you apply for positions inside your own discipline, then you are compared to your peers, who have similar reader base and so on.

Like James said, as long as you get lot of reads, things are good for you.

Dear Pradeep Kumar T S please see the closely related RG thread entitled "How to increase the citations of your sole-author or multiple-authors papers published at the Renown Journal in the field of your research?":

https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_to_increase_the_citations_of_your_sole-author_or_multiple-authors_papers_published_at_the_Renown_Journal_in_the_field_of_your_research

In particular, read the last answer given by Orlando M Lourenço who correctly stated "Citation may happen (or not)". So my personal suggestion would also be to just wait and let citations come (or not).

Pradeep Kumar T S

You say "My Paper is been read more than 1000 times, but i didn't get any citations ". I understand that you did not feel satisfied with such state of affairs. I am of the opinion that almost if not everything in life should be seen in relative terms. Prof. Frank T. Edelmann suggested that you might read an answer I gave on the thread he mentions To make things easier to you, I write here what I wrote on the thread mentioned by Frank T. Edelmann

"To dedicate one's life to conduct research and publish our papers at the renown journals in the specific field of our expertise is the hallmark of any good/excellent researcher. Citations are a minor issue for him/her. If they come they are welcome. If this is not the case, s/he continues to carry out research and publish in renown journals. As I see is, what researchers desire most is to serve the society at large and carry out applied research for that purpose and/or fundamental research to get a better understanding of the unknown. Citations may happen (or not). However, as a rule of thumb, papers published in a renown journal tend to attract a lot of citations."

More to the point, there are a lot of unknowns in the citation system. For example, not all of them are necessarily candid. It may also be the case that your paper had been cited by non-Research Gate members. Please, keep doing research and publish and let citations to happen (or not).

The journal where you published may affect the visibility of your paper. You should ensure you share your paper in the research groups where the researchers who are related to your field can easily see the work and will likely cite them when they worked on similar area.

Dear Pradeep Kumar T S,

To have your paper read by more than 1000 times is a good achievement. You would be more satisfied if your paper had been cited. Think, however, that what happened to you also happens to others. Many reads may not lead to citations. This may happen, for example, when the reads are, say, shallow, when the paper is published in a journal that has a small audience; when the topic you address is narrowly focused. As stressed by Frank T. Edelmann " your paper must be relevant to new work published by other scientists." Do you think that that is the case of your paper? Keep performing good research, try to publish it a renown journal and let citations happen or not. To make some fun, sometimes serendipity also works!

It is not of interést to the reader.

Dear Pradeep Kumar T S and Jesus Gilberto Concepcion personally I would not go so far to say that "It is not of interest to the reader." Perhaps the paper did not yet reach the right readers, namely the experts in the field. A research paper is only cited when experts in the field read it and regard it as relevant to their own work. So don't lose your patience! Citations will come.

Pradeep Kumar T S promote you paper - Mendeley, LinkedIn.

Finally RG - look for discussion and questions where it can be helpful.

regards,

GB

Dear Pradeep Kumar T S has your original paper been published in a journal with an impact actor? In my opinion only papers published in journals with at least a low impact factor are read worldwide and eventually cited. In this context, please see this useful link entitled " Should you care about your h-index, and if so, how to improve it?"

https://openscience.com/should-you-care-about-your-h-index-and-if-so-how-to-improve-it/

Dear Pradeep Kumar T S P.S. please also note that citation counts strongly depend on the various disciplines of research. In this context please see this interesting link entitled

"Are 90% of academic papers really never cited? Reviewing the literature on academic citations."

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/04/23/academic-papers-citation-rates-remler/

Agreed with Frank T. Edelmann views and Edwiges Gabrielle Hoffnung Grata reply.

In my view, I recommend you publish your manuscript in indexed journals (Web of science, scopes, and pumped). On the other hand, In case, if you involve in answers and questions at the research gate, your readings might be entire to your responses and questions. Only the total number of reads cannot evaluate your progress and capability in research but citation should also be considered. Citation paper can be increased if your manuscripts were published in indexed journals (Web of science, scopes, and pumped).

I agree with Orlando M Lourenço.

I have a paper with 1900 reads but no citation. Such is life, my friend! Not to worry about things you don't have control over.

If look at myself, then I cite no more than 10% of the articles read. Reading does not always lead to citation. Moreover, I don't read everything that I get ...

Dear Pradeep Kumar T S, I am agreed with Mr. Frank T. Edelmann , As his views that (The paper did not yet reach the right readers, namely the experts in the field. A research paper is only cited when experts in the field read it and regard it as relevant to their own work).

When the right person will read and he finds some interesting inputs in your paper then definitely he will follow u well and yes it will take a time to have some good citations.

Regards

Dr.Mastoi

Pradeep Kumar T S

I consider such readings as ghost readings if they are on RG/A. Probably, you need to increase the exposure to your paper locally. Relevant-to-your-context and research scholars are morally obliged to review literature done in their context. To that end, a reviewer may ask for whys and wherefores if contextually relevant studies have been overlooked.

Cheers,

Dear Pradeep Kumar T S I fully agree with Abdul Shakoor Mastoi and Mohialdeen Alotumi in that read of your published research papers on social media platforms are "ghost readings". You just need experts in your field who understand your work. Only then it has chances of being cited.

In this context please see this interesting link entitled

"How to (seriously) read a scientific paper"

https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2016/03/how-seriously-read-scientific-paper

Dear Pradeep Kumar T S P.S It's now about 10 months ago that you asked your original question "My Paper is been read more than 1000 times, but i didn't get any citations". It would be interesting for the readers of this thread if you could tell us of your paper has been cited in the meantime.

I would also add that Pradeep Kumar T S might maintain his RG circle internationally and locally relevant to his research interests. Relevancy of followers and followees on scholarly platforms could enhance the possibility of citing.

Good point Prof. Frank T. Edelmann! Any update regarding your paper in the past ten months?

I totally agree with everyone who stated that: "Reading does not necessarily to citation". Citation index takes about several factors to be done. However, papers are cited when the readers find it relevant to their papers, and especially when the paper presents a novelty in the field. But if the paper is just presenting sore mere facts, it is hard to be cited.

Dear Pradeep Kumar T S has your paper been cited in the meantime? Please let us know! 👍 Always keep in mind that citations of research papers take time! They are only cited when the work is of interest to other researchers and matches their work. Only if other researchers regard your work as important previous contribution to the field of research they will eventually cite it. In any case you cannot do much (if anything) to artificially increase the citations of your article. Just be patient and let the citations come in (or not). Often it takes years until a research paper is cited, and many research articles are never cited.

Also keep in mind that you are not alone with this problem.In this context please see this closely related RG thread entitled

Many reads but no citation

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Many-reads-but-no-citation

My personal advice would be: Don't worry too much about citations!