Research Collection – interesting reading
What are the topics in focus? What is being downloaded and cited via the Research Collection? Current statistics show that in Q3 2021, reading choices were dominated by COVID-19 and climate change.
What are you reading? What are others interested in? The evaluation of the ETH Zurich publication platform provides regular statistical information concerning the areas of focus in download and research. The figures for the most frequently downloaded documents in the Research Collection reflect two of the dominant topics of recent months: the COVID-19 pandemic as well as its consequences, and climate change.
Pandemic first
The most downloaded article was published by the KOF, the Swiss Economic Institute at ETH Zurich, back in June 2021 and is entitled “external pageEconomic analysis:external pageforecast for 2021/2022 – the upturn has arrived, earlier and stronger than expected”. Download statistics suggest that interest in the article has risen continuously since its publication.
Focusing on climate research
Climate change, or more specifically the extreme events it may cause, is not only the topic of the most downloaded record, but is also the subject of the article with the highest altmetric score:
- “external pageFlood simulation data of a 100-year designed storm in 656catchment areas of Switzerland” is the name of the record that has already been downloaded 6,790 times since its publication.
- The paper with an altmetric score of almost 3,000 is entitled “external pageIncreasing probability of record-shattering climate extremes”.
Groundbreaking paper with long-term appeal
Just 17 pages in length – but with the potential to change the world: the most downloaded doctoral thesis is not a newcomer to these statistics. It is Albert Einstein’s paper “external pageEine neue Bestimmung der Moleküldimensionen”, submitted by the Nobel prizewinner to the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Zurich in 1905. The thesis continues to be one of the most frequently cited scientific publications to this day.
Comparing numbers
In general, the number of downloads decreased slightly on Q2 2021, but no significant changes were observed in the country order or open-access percentages.
Go to the infographic for July to September 2021
The Research Collection is the publication platform of ETH Zurich. University members can use it to publish academic full texts on an open-access basis, as well as to archive research data or to make these available to the public.