Purdue e-Pubs readership activity map tracks scholarship, research
October 22, 2014
Through the Purdue e-Pubs readership activity map, Purdue authors can see the global impact their published scholarship and research makes by making their publications open access through the Purdue e-Pubs institutional document repository.
Built upon a Google maps platform, the readership activity map is a real-time visualization of full-text COUNTER compliant downloads happening from around the globe. Users who visit Purdue e-Pubs are greeted with the map from the repository’s homepage. After a short introduction the pins begin populating the map every time a download appears.
The map informs users where the reader is located (city, state, country), the publication that was downloaded, and the series or collection the publication came from. Users also have the ability to click on a previously dropped pin to see the same information on that download.
The map informs users how many real-time full-text downloads have occurred since the map began playing through its time stamped download counter. Additionally, the map highlights the total number of papers, downloads, and the number of downloads in the past year from within the repository.
No matter the time of day, users are downloading documents from Purdue e-Pubs, says Jim Mullins, dean of libraries and the Esther Ellis Norton professor.
“It could be the middle of the afternoon on Purdue’s campus, yet evening in Europe or the middle of the night in China, and downloads from readers are still happening in those locations. It’s mesmerizing to see the 'pins' populating the map,” Mullins says. “The Purdue e-Pubs readership activity map effectively highlights the global impact Purdue makes through its support of open access.”
For more information about the Purdue e-Pubs repository, readership activity map, or adding previously published scholarship and research to the repository, contact Dave Scherer, scholarly repository specialist, at 49-48511 or dscherer@purdue.edu.
