Open access publications drive few visits from Google Search results to institutional repositories
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21442853 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Enrique Orduña‐Malea (0000-0002-1989-8477, Universitat Politècnica de València), Cristina I Font-Julián (0000-0003-2351-4816, Universitat Politècnica de València, corresponding author), Jorge Serrano-Cobos (0000-0002-4394-4883, Universitat Politècnica de València) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 129 |
| Issue | 11 |
| Pages | 7131-7152 |
| Publication date | 2024-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Scientometrics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0138-9130 • E-ISSN: 1588-2861 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s11192-024-05175-0 |
| OpenAlex | W4403359610 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 49 |
Given the importance of Google Search in generating visits to institutional repositories (IR), a lack of visibility in search engine results pages can hinder the possibility of their publications being found, read, downloaded, and, eventually, cited. To address this, institutions need to evaluate the visibility of their repositories to determine what actions might be implemented to enhance them. However, measuring the search engine optimization (SEO) visibility of IRs requires a highly accurate, technically feasible method. This study constitutes the first attempt to design such a method, specifically applied here to measuring the IR visibility of Spain’s national university system in Google Search based on a set of SEO-based metrics derived from the Ubersuggest SEO tool. A comprehensive dataset spanning three months and comprising 217,589 bibliographic records and 316,899 organic keywords is used as a baseline. Our findings show that many records deposited in these repositories are not ranked among the top positions in Google Search results, and that the most visible records are mainly academic works (theses and dissertations) written in Spanish in the Humanities and Social Sciences. However, most visits are generated by a small number of records. All in all, our results call into question the role played by IRs in attracting readers via Google Search to the institutions’ scientific heritage and serve to underscore the prevailing emphasis within IRs on preservation as opposed to online dissemination. Potential improvements might be achieved using enhanced metadata schemes and normalized description practices, as well as by adopting other actionable insights that can strengthen the online visibility of IRs. This study increases understanding of the role played by web indicators in assessing the web-based impact of research outputs deposited in IRs, and should be of particular interest for a range of stakeholders, including open access and open science advocates, research agencies, library practitioners, repository developers, and website administrators
Business · Data science · Information retrieval · Library science · Political science · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Research Data Management Practices · scientometrics and bibliometrics research · Web visibility and informetrics
The Institutional Repository
The Platform Society
Evaluating the online impact of reporting guidelines for randomised trial reports and protocols
The practical implementation of open access policies and mandates in Spanish public universities
Altmetrics of the Open Access Institutional Repositories
Search engines and the production of academic knowledge
In Google We Trust
Online brands
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |