{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,1]],"date-time":"2026-03-01T08:34:16Z","timestamp":1772354056494,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2017,9,18]],"date-time":"2017-09-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1505692800000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["AJIM"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2017,9,18]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Purpose<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The introduction of \u201caltmetrics\u201d as new tools to analyze scientific impact within the reward system of science has challenged the hegemony of citations as the predominant source for measuring scientific impact. Mendeley readership has been identified as one of the most important altmetric sources, with several features that are similar to citations. The purpose of this paper is to perform an in-depth analysis of the differences and similarities between the distributions of Mendeley readership and citations across fields.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The authors analyze two issues by using in each case a common analytical framework for both metrics: the shape of the distributions of readership and citations, and the field normalization problem generated by differences in citation and readership practices across fields. In the first issue the authors use the characteristic scores and scales method, and in the second the measurement framework introduced in Crespo <jats:italic>et al.<\/jats:italic> (2013).<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Findings<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>There are three main results. First, the citations and Mendeley readership distributions exhibit a strikingly similar degree of skewness in all fields. Second, the results on \u201cexchange rates (ERs)\u201d for Mendeley readership empirically supports the possibility of comparing readership counts across fields, as well as the field normalization of readership distributions using ERs as normalization factors. Third, field normalization using field mean readerships as normalization factors leads to comparably good results.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>These findings open up challenging new questions, particularly regarding the possibility of obtaining conflicting results from field normalized citation and Mendeley readership indicators; this suggests the need for better determining the role of the two metrics in capturing scientific recognition.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/ajim-01-2017-0023","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,8,18]],"date-time":"2017-08-18T07:21:02Z","timestamp":1503040862000},"page":"557-575","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["On the quest for currencies of science"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"69","author":[{"given":"Rodrigo","family":"Costas","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Antonio","family":"Perianes-Rodr\u00edguez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Javier","family":"Ruiz-Castillo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"issue":"1","key":"key2020120520104693700_ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"40","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.21448","article-title":"References made and citations received by scientific articles","volume":"62","year":"2011","journal-title":"Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2020120520104693700_ref002","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"512","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.23219","article-title":"Differences in citation impact across countries","volume":"66","year":"2015","journal-title":"Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2020120520104693700_ref003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"385","DOI":"10.1007\/s11192-011-0407-9","article-title":"The skewness of science in 219 sub-fields and a number of aggregates","volume":"88","year":"2011","journal-title":"Scientometrics"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2020120520104693700_ref004","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"776","DOI":"10.1016\/j.joi.2016.04.015","article-title":"Normalization of Mendeley reader impact on the reader- and paper-side: a comparison of the mean discipline normalized reader score (MDNRS) with the mean normalized reader score (MNRS) and bare reader counts","volume":"10","year":"2016","journal-title":"Journal of Informetrics"},{"issue":"6","key":"key2020120520104693700_ref005","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"19","DOI":"10.1177\/053901847501400602","article-title":"The specificity of the scientific field and the social conditions of the progress of reason","volume":"14","year":"1975","journal-title":"Social Science Information"},{"key":"key2020120520104693700_ref006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bourdieu, P. 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