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The Numbers Are Up for GSA Today

Analyzing the numbers for 25 years of GSA Today science articles (1991–2015)
leads to some interesting statistics, including top page views and top citations. Some science
articles have become hot topics, as seen either by number of citations or number of page views.

Page Views Citations

GSA Today reaches a wide and diverse audience. All articles are Since its premier in 1991, GSA Today has generated a large
open-access online. The highest year for page views was 2012, proportion of citations considering that only one peer-reviewed
with 54,512 views so far (html files only, does not count abstract science article is published per issue. The top year for citations was
or PDF views; see Fig. 1 and Table 1). The paper with the greatest 1997, with 1,660 (see Fig. 3). The paper with the greatest number
number of page views is “An anthropogenic marker horizon in the of citations is from April 1997: “Global Seismic Tomography: A
future rock record,” by Patricia L. Corcoran et al., from June 2014 Snapshot of Convection in the Earth,” by Stephen P. Grand et al.
(v. 24, no. 6, p. 4–8) (see Fig. 2). (v. 7, no. 3, p. 4–7) (see Fig. 4). For science article totals per year,
see Table 2.
cumulative 60,000 21,485 38,356 45,650 54,512 21,578 48,782
50,000 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Other highly cited articles include 2008’s “A geological and
40,000 8,850 geophysical context for the Wenchuan earthquake of 12 May
30,000 2015 2008, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China,” by B. Clark Burchfiel
20,000 et al. (v. 18, no. 7, p. 4–11), with 538 citations. This article is also
10,000 unique because it appeared in print less than two months after
the event (see Fig. 5).
0
The second most-viewed article is “The evolution of creationism,”
Figure 1. GSA Today science article page views per year (cumulative). Total: by David R. Montgomery (v. 22, no. 11, p. 4–9), with 18,398 page
239,213. (Google Analytics data for full-article html files only; data were views so far (per Google Analytics data for 2009–2015 only).
not recorded prior to 2009.) The number of manuscripts per year varies; see
Table 2. For a full list of GSA Today science article statistics (to be
updated quarterly), go to www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/ and click
on the “View Statistics” button.

Table 1. Most Viewed Science Articles 2009–2015

Month Article Page Avg. Cites
/year views* time on

page

Aug. “Pleistocene relative sea levels in the 3,369 2 min, 0
2015 Chesapeake Bay region and their 54 sec

implications for the next century”

June “An anthropogenic marker horizon in the 30,598 4 min, 25

2014 future rock record” 24 sec

Feb. “Miocene rejuvenation of topographic 3,650 4 min, 49
2013 relief in the southern Appalachians” 24 sec

Nov. “The evolution of creationism” 18,398 6 min, 3
2012 36 sec

GSA TODAY | MARCH/APRIL 2016 Jan. “Microbial communities in fluid 16,435 2 min, 66
2011 inclusions and long-term survival in 4 sec

halite”

Apr./ “The digital revolution in geologic 10,206 3 min, 51
May mapping” 23 sec
2010
Figure 2. June 2014 GSA Today cover featuring the top-most viewed GSA Today
science article of all time (30,598 views), due in part to the wide media coverage Sept. “The Portland Basin: A (big) river runs 5,635 4 min, 12
it received, including articles in LiveScience, Science, Scientific American 2009 through it” 25 sec
(podcast), The New York Times, The Weather Channel, Hawaii Tribune Herald,
Fox News (video and interview with one of the authors), CBS News, the Note: Google Analytics and Google Scholar Data obtained 4 Feb. 2016.
Huffington Post, Forbes, and American Scientist. Links to media coverage of *HTML page views only; no PDF data available.
GSA science are online at www.geosociety.org/news/scienceNews.htm.

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