Case Study: How Radcliffe Group Achieved a 40% Citation Boost and Expanded Its Global Audience Through Journal Home

The Publisher's Perspective: Standing Out as an Independent Publisher

Radcliffe Group, the knowledge network for the global cardiovascular community, is a specialist independent publisher currently entering its second year of a successful Journal Home partnership with ResearchGate. 

Navigating a highly competitive scholarly landscape, Radcliffe Group continuously seeks innovative ways to maximise the visibility, discoverability, and overall impact of its content. For independent publishers, this requires a delicate strategic balance: sustaining mature, established titles while simultaneously accelerating the growth of newer, niche journals within a region-specific portfolio.

Like many publishers considering making their research accessible on external platforms, Radcliffe initially approached the idea with a common industry concern: would allowing researchers to read and download articles directly on ResearchGate affect the usage of articles on their own publisher websites?

“We initially wondered if an external platform would pull readers away from our own site, but the first year proved it is entirely additive, and our native traffic actually increased.” - Ola Wisniewska, Publishing Director at Radcliffe Group 

‍Discovering ResearchGate

It was with a focus on innovation, discoverability, and researcher engagement that Radcliffe first discovered the highly engaged community of researchers on ResearchGate. 

The ResearchGate platform has grown into an important route for researchers to discover scholarly content and engage with the global research community. Based on  this, Radcliffe saw an opportunity to grow their community, and leverage the discoverability power of ResearchGate’s network.

‍First year of Success on Journal Home

Radcliffe initiated a one year partnership with ResearchGate during which all content from their six Open Access journals (all society-owned titles) were made available on ResearchGate. Each journal also has a unique Journal Profile activated and being newly discoverable and accessible across 1000s of relevant touchpoints on the platform – in users profiles, feeds, notifications, emails and searches.

“Our goal was to tap into ResearchGate’s highly engaged community to drive incremental downloads, citations, and manuscript submissions beyond what we could achieve through our native journal platform alone,” - Ola Wisniewska, Publishing Director at Radcliffe Group

The first year of the partnership quickly delivered positive results, and dispelled any concerns Radcliffe had prior to activating Journal Home. 

Instead of diverting users away from Radcliffe's native platform, the collaboration unlocked an entirely additive layer of global readership. Traffic and downloads on Radcliffe's own website actually increased alongside their performance on ResearchGate.

Further to this, the first year results exceeded Radcliffe’s expectations:

• Radcliffe's journals achieved 123% of their annual article download target.
• While established journals performed exceptionally well, Journal Home proved especially crucial in boosting the visibility and growth of the newer, smaller journals in Radcliffe’s portfolio.
• 89% of the readers engaging with Radcliffe’s content on ResearchGate had not yet authored a paper with their journals. Providing access to a massive, untapped audience of prospective authors discovering the journals for the first time.

Driving Citation Growth

Increased visibility is only part of the challenge journals are facing in the current climate. To demonstrate that a journal is really reaching and engaging its community, citation growth remains the clearest indicator and a vital benchmark of impact.

Over the course of the first year, Radcliffe’s expanded readership through Journal Home translated directly into a significant surge in citations.

• Portfolio-Wide Citation Growth: Since starting the partnership, the average citation rates across Radcliffe's portfolio have increased by 40% compared to the previous year.
• Standout Success: Key journals, such as the Journal of Asian Pacific Society of Cardiology (JAPSC), saw citation increases of around 70%.
• Direct Attribution: While acknowledging that not all growth is solely due to the partnership, Journal Home’s industry-leading citation tracking enabled Radcliffe to prove the direct attribution. 
  
  • Importantly, 19% of all citations generated since the partnership began are directly attributed to Journal Home through "Influenced Citations". 
  • “Influenced Citations” is a unique attribution system built into Journal Home, which tracks when any researcher reads an article on ResearchGate (because a publisher made the full text available through Journal Home) and identifies if that researcher then goes on to cite that article in their own publication(s). This direct connection between readership and citation is a powerful mechanism that has enabled Radcliffe to clearly track and attribute the citation impact of Journal Home for their titles.

Targeting New Audiences with "Editor Picks"

A new innovative feature of the partnership was the deployment of the Community Engagement Upgrade (CEU), which actively empowered Radcliffe's journal editors and journal staff to more deeply understand their journal’s community through the unique Journal Stats feature, as well as curate and promote specific articles using the new "Editor Picks" functionality.

The introduction of Editor Picks generated huge engagement among relevant researchers within the ResearchGate community, driving an exceptional 357% average readership uplift for promoted articles. 

A standout success occurred when a single, record-breaking Editor Pick triggered a staggering 2,370% increase in readership for the featured research. 

Beyond boosting readership, this feature proved to be a powerful tool for audience acquisition. Remarkably, 82% of the researchers who engaged with Radcliffe’s journals via an Editor Pick were entirely new to the publisher's ecosystem, having never previously interacted with their titles.

Extending the Partnership: June 2027

The first year of collaboration between ResearchGate and Radcliffe Group has proven that a strategic, data-driven partnership can fundamentally elevate the growth trajectory of an independent publisher. 

By boosting citations, delivering additive readership, and opening doors to entirely new global audiences, the partnership has exceeded its first-year goals.

Reflecting on these milestones, Ola Wisniewska highlighted the significant impact of the results:

“Our first year with ResearchGate has been an overwhelming success. This partnership has delivered purely incremental, high-impact growth for both our established and newer titles. Features like Editor Picks have been an incredible asset, driving unprecedented readership increases and opening doors to a large audience of new researchers. We are delighted to renew our partnership for a second year and keep this momentum going.”

Building upon a remarkable first year, this partnership serves as a powerful blueprint for other independent publishers looking to unlock this same level of global growth. Moving into year two of their Journal Home partnership, Radcliffe Group and ResearchGate are continuing to reshape how cardiovascular insights are shared, proving that with the right collaboration, independent journals can maximise their impact and share their research directly with the communities who need it most.

To download this case study as a PDF, click here.

For more information about Journal Home, please visit researchgate.net/journal-home.

For more information about ResearchGate, please visit researchgate.net.    

For more information about Radcliffe Group, please visit https://www.radcliffe-group.com/

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About ResearchGate  
ResearchGate is the professional network for researchers. Over 25 million researchers use researchgate.net to share and discover research, build their networks, and advance their careers. Based in Berlin, ResearchGate was founded in 2008. Its mission is to connect the world of science and make research open to all.

ResearchGate media contact:  
press@researchgate.net  

About Radcliffe Group
Radcliffe equips healthcare professionals with the skills and practical insights they need to do their best for patients, by bringing the world’s cardiovascular knowledge to life. We combine scientific rigour with communications expertise and technical mastery, to make knowledge-sharing as effortless and effective as possible.

Radcliffe Group media contact:
Ola Wiśniewska, Publishing Director: ola.wisniewska@radcliffe-group.com

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