The annual report from PDXScholar shows the growing and continued impact of the work of Portland State University faculty, staff, and students. Portland State University Library released its annual report today, with several notable highlights, including a new benchmark: in 2018 alone, there were more than one million downloads of works from PDXScholar. The year also saw a dramatic 35% increase in full text downloads, from 874,129 in 2017 to 1,182,021 downloads in 2018. PDXScholar items were downloaded by people in 228 countries and accessed by people at more than 32,570 institutions worldwide. As of January 8, 2019, there have been more than 3.7 million total downloads of items from PDXScholar.
Highlights
Top three most downloaded collections:
- Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection (495,062 downloads)
- University Honors College Theses (150,000 downloads)
- PDXOpen: Open Access Textbooks (72,399 downloads)
This year, the Library also published four new open access textbooks and digitized 371 Portland State theses and dissertations.
Feedback
Throughout the year, we gather feedback from users. Here is some of what our users told us this year:
“PDXScholar makes it so easy ‒ that’s why you have a good reputation among faculty.”‒ Bennett Gilbert, PSU University Studies
“Thank you for providing such articles. It will help me in providing background information to encourage the MENA region countries to mainstream the concept of valuing Ecosystem Services in the decision making process in light of climate change and accomplishing the SDGs [Sustainable Development Goals].” ‒ HRH Princess Basma Ali (Jordan)
“Access to your peer reviewed research on lead contamination in urban gardens in Oakland helped me, as an advocate of healthy food systems, promote policy reforms to improve public health and access to healthy food.” – Anonymous
“I’m in high school and am writing a thesis for my senior year. It has been incredibly difficult finding resources for my topic, especially online. Getting access to this thesis online and for free is a wonderful benefit.” – Anonymous
PDXScholar, a service of Portland State University Library, provides access to a diverse collection of academic, scholarly, scientific and creative content produced by faculty, students and staff. PDXScholar increases the visibility of authors’ works, maximizes research impact, facilitates interdisciplinary research, and provides regional and global communities with immediate and permanent access.
See more information in the PDXScholar Annual Report for 2018.
This map shows the distribution of PDXScholar downloads, with heaviest concentrations in North America, western Europe, and India.