While citations using standard citation styles are usually extracted accurately on ResearchGate, there are some instances where they cannot be extracted – for example, for full-text PDFs that have been created from scanned hard copies. PDF as a format is not particularly standard, and therefore creating algorithms to extract this information is an ongoing process, with varying levels of success. Please also note that citations that do not have complete publication dates may not be included in your citation counts, as this is an important piece of information when it comes to matching citations to publications correctly. Additionally, if the citing paper is not on ResearchGate, this can also hinder our efforts to add the citation. Our citation data is regularly updated and we are working hard to improve how we extract and match citations, so if you notice some are missing, they may be added soon.

A read is counted when somebody:

• Reads the full-text or summary of any type of research (e.g., journal article, conference paper, dataset) on ResearchGate
• Downloads a file hosted on ResearchGate, including direct downloads from Google Scholar and other search engines

Reads are counted from both logged in ResearchGate members and logged out readers.

To make sure reads gives you an accurate picture of the attention your research is getting, a read isn't counted when you access one of your own publications. It is also not counted when your work is accessed by an artificial traffic source.

Why have my publication stats changed?

We’ve introduced reads to give you a single metric to measure the exposure of all the work you’ve added on ResearchGate. Reads takes all your views and downloads and combines them. Since the publication's page displays the full-text or summary, views and downloads say the same thing - that someone has read your work.

We're continuously working on improving our ability to detect different sources of artificial traffic to make sure we show you accurate metrics. Please get in touch if you notice anything unusual with your stats.

You can find out how many citations your publications on ResearchGate are getting, where they were cited, and by whom. Where possible, you will also be able to see exactly what was said about your research and view the citation in context in the publication where it was cited.

Researchers can decide whether they want to read research privately or publicly. This can be updated in the Privacy settings, in the Reader data section, by selecting the box that says Allow other researchers to see that you've read their publications. If researchers untick this box, granting anonymity, this means that they also won't be able to see which researchers have read their publications.