ISSEK working papers series had the biggest number of downloads in SSRN in October
In October 2013 HSE launched the first stage of the evaluation of the publication activity of scientific personnel (further “Evaluation”). One of the three conditions for a successful attestation is to issue a working paper (WP) of the HSE Basic Research Program (HSE BRP). In October “Science, Technology and Innovation” series of working papers launched by ISSEK hit the first place in number of WP downloads in SSRN among all HSE BRP WP series.
According to the Rules of Evaluation its first stage (analysis of the number and quality of publications) takes place in October-November 2013. For a successful attestation researchers need to satisfy at least one of the three conditions set for staff members of different rank. It should be noted that each condition presupposes that the person has at least one publication in English issued. Among others, working papers of the HSE Basic Research Program are considered such a publication.
Number of HSE BRP working papers
All HSE BPR working papers are issued only in English and only in the electronic form. As of 21 October 2013 215 HSE BRP working papers were issued in 13 thematic series (Figure 1). These publications are posted on a special page of HSE portal as well as on HSE page in SSRN (Social Science Research Network), one of the largest repositories of publications on Social Sciences and Humanities. Until recently, series “Science, Technology and Innovation” launched by ISSEK, was “the youngest” among 12 series. In July 2013 the 13th series “Linguistics” was opened.
The time a working paper was issued and the time it appeared in SSRN could be different for the first working papers. The first working paper of the Basic Research Program Number was issued October 4, 2011 in the “Education” series: “2D:4D Asymmetry and Academic Performance: Evidence from Moscow and Manilа” by John Nye, Grigory Androushchak, Desirée Desierto, Garett Jones and Maria Yudkevich (WP BRP 01/EDU/2011) however it was posted on SSRN website only on February16, 2013. Meanwhile the first HSE BRP working paper posted on SSRN website is the paper by Nikolay Arefiev “Generalized Calvo Approach” from “Economics” series (WP BRP 06/EC/2011)
… and the quality of the working papers
The popularity of HSE BRP working papers in SSRN can be measured by the number of downloads. SSRN download counter engine counts downloads only from registered SSRN users (those who logged in with his/her username and password). Second or repetitive downloads from the same user and direct downloads from search engines are ignored. Thus, SSRN counts only circumspect and not spontaneous downloads. Basic statistics on popularity of HSE BRP working paper series is presented in Table 1. As of October 21, 2013 “Economics” and “Humanities” with 36 and 35 working papers were the leaders in number of WP among all HSE BRP series.
As of October 21, 2013 “Science, Technology and Innovation” (STI) series is the leader in total number of WP downloads and frequency of WP downloads among 12 HSE BRP series (the recently opened “Linguistics” series without any working paper isn’t taken into account). It should be noted here that the number of working papers in STI is a third lower than in “Economics” and “Humanities”. “Science, Technology and Innovation” has also the highest average number of downloads per one working paper.
ISSEK STI series’ high popularity in SSRN is provided by two working papers: “Innovation concepts and typology – an evolutionary discussion” (WP BRP 05/STI/2013) and “Conceptualizing the innovation process – trends and outlook” (WP BRP 10/STI/2013 ). Dirk Meissner and Maxim Kotsemir are the authors of both the papers (Alexander Abroskin is the co-author of WP BRP 05/STI/2013). As of October 21, 2013 each of the abovementioned WPs totaled more than 390 downloads, far ahead of the rest of working papers (Table 2) (on average each WP under HSE Basic Research Program was downloaded 37 times). Only 11 out of 215 preprints were downloaded more than 100 times.
Table 1. Basic information on the Working papers Series from the HSE Basic Research Program in SSRN (as of 16 May 2013)
| Series | Number of downloads as of 21 October, 2013 | Number of working papers as of 21 October 2013 | Average number of downloads per working paper | Weighted average of per day downloads for all working paper in the series1 | Average number of downloads of all working paper in the series per day2 | Date of posting of the first working paper in SSRN3 |
| Science, Technology and Innovation | 1 411 | 20 | 70.6 | 1.293 | 3.68 | 04.10.2012 |
| Economics | 1 375 | 36 | 38.2 | 0.200 | 2.00 | 06.12.2011 |
| Humanities | 995 | 35 | 28.4 | 0.199 | 1.58 | 01.02.2012 |
| Financial Economics | 793 | 18 | 44.1 | 0.217 | 1.44 | 18.04.2012 |
| Sociology | 748 | 25 | 29.9 | 0.107 | 1.15 | 12.01.2012 |
| Political Science | 677 | 11 | 61.5 | 0.242 | 1.10 | 16.02.2012 |
| Management | 605 | 12 | 50.4 | 0.900 | 1.05 | 26.03.2012 |
| Law | 478 | 26 | 18.4 | 0.144 | 0.77 | 11.02.2012 |
| Education | 450 | 13 | 34.6 | 0.172 | 0.73 | 16.02.2012 |
| Psychology | 184 | 13 | 14.2 | 0.071 | 0.30 | 18.02.2012 |
| Public Administration | 122 | 4 | 30.5 | 0.082 | 0.19 | 01.02.2012 |
| International Relations | 51 | 2 | 25.5 | 0.072 | 0.13 | 25.09.2012 |
Notes: 1. Weighting was done on the total number of downloads for each working paper. When calculating the indicator “Number of downloads per day” for each working paper date of upload of paper to SSRN as well as day of analysis were counted as full days.
2. This indicator is counted as ratio of total number of downloads of all working papers in the series to the number of days since uploading the first working paper in the series. Date of upload of paper to SSRN as well as day of analysis were counted as full days.
3. Date of posting was taken according to information from “personal page” of each working paper in SSRN.
4. The data is relevant for May 16, 2013.
Top-10 HSE authors by number of HSE BRP WP downloads in SSRN are shown in Table 3. This table gives an idea of whose working paper has the biggest number of downloads (Maxim Kotsemir and Dirk Meissner), and who is the most productive author (Henry Penikas who posted 7 working papers under HSE Basic Research Program). In this regard, Dirk Meissner, Maria Yudkevich and Michael Antonov should be noted: all of these authors prepared 6 HSE BRP working papers.
It will be interesting to trace the dynamics of quantitative and qualitative indicators of HSE BRP working papers posted on SSRN website, after the first stage of the evaluation of the HSE scientific personnel’s publication activity.
Table 2. Top-10 of most popular HSE Basic Research Program working papers as of October 21, 2013Notes: 1. all the data are relevant for May 16, 2013.
2. When calculating the indicator “Number of WP downloads per day” date of upload of paper to SSRN as well as day of analysis were counted as full days.
Top-10 HSE authors by number of HSE BRP WP downloads in SSRN as of October 21, 2013| No. | Author | Total number of downloads of all HSE BRP working papers by this author | Number of HSE BRP working papers prepared by this author |
| 1 | Dirk Meissner | 1 052 | 6 |
| 2 | Maxim Kotsemir | 923 | 3 |
| 3 | Ora John Reuter | 344 | 4 |
| 4 | Henry Penikas | 291 | 7 |
| 5 | Maria Yudkevich | 275 | 6 |
| 6 | Irina Savelieva | 262 | 3 |
| 7 | Andrei Vernikov | 256 | 1 |
| 8 | Ilya Voskoboynikov | 244 | 1 |
| 9 | Gregory Androushchak | 238 | 3 |
| 10 | Ivan Boldyrev | 230 | 3 |
Prepared by Maxim Kotsemir