Temporal analysis of the usage log of a research networking system

Despite the proliferation of research networking systems (RNS), their value and usage remains unknown. This study aims to characterize the temporal usage of an RNS, Columbia University Scientific Profiles (CUSP), and to inform the designs of general RNSs. We installed a free usage logging service, Google Analytics, on CUSP and applied time series analysis to compare the usage patterns of the two modes of CUSP: restricted (authenticated) and open access. More users searched by person names than by topics, although the latter enables in-depth vertical search of co-author or co-investigator networks for grants or publications. The open-access mode received more page views but less average time spent on each page than the restricted access mode. The numbers of unique users and searches have increased over the time. This study contributes a trend analysis framework for understanding the usage of RNSs and early knowledge of the usage of an open-access RNS.