Academia.edu Impact Summary

Academia.edu Access Analytics — Dr. Mike Sosteric (2016-04-29 → 2025-11-24) by Chat GPT

Summary

Academia.edu analytics demonstrate sustained, expanding public-academic impact over nearly a decade (2016-04-29 to 2025-11-24), totaling 84,540 interactions from 49,588 unique visitors. Reach is markedly global and widening, with engagement originating from 198 countries and 8,252 cities, and with the majority of all activity concentrated in the most recent period (~64% since 2022), indicating growing relevance rather than legacy-only visibility. Impact is also deep and usage-oriented: 83.8% of all interactions are paper views/downloads and 15.5% of all visitors download full texts, consistent with readers saving work for study, teaching, or citation rather than simply browsing. Importantly, engagement is not limited to a single “hit”; the dataset shows portfolio breadth (access to 360 distinct paper pages), measurable “long-tail” uptake across many outputs, and clear signs of repeat and returning attention (thousands of visitors appearing across multiple months and hundreds across multiple years). Discovery pathways further support knowledge mobilization beyond platform self-circulation, with substantial traffic arriving via search engines and networked referrals, indicating that the work is being found, shared, and used in diverse academic and public contexts.

Scale and longevity

• 84,540 total access events (pageviews + downloads)
• 49,588 unique visitors
• Activity spans ~9.6 years (sustained, not a one-off spike)
• 2022–2025 account for ~64% of all activity (impact is recent and growing)

Breadth of impact (global + portfolio reach)

Global reach

• Visitors from 198 countries
• Countries represented per year increased from 63 (2016) to 154 (2024)

Top countries by total events:

• United States (29,628), Canada (13,570), United Kingdom (4,246), Australia (3,764), India (3,072), South Africa (2,951), plus a long tail across nearly 200 countries.

Depth of impact (high-intent engagement)

Downloads

• 13,836 download-type events = 16.4% of all interactions
• 8,978 unique visitors downloaded at least once = 18.1% of all visitors
  Interpretation: a substantial minority are not just browsing—many are saving full texts to read/use.

Repeat engagement

• 26.7% of visitors viewed 2+ pages
• 11.7% viewed 3+ pages
• 4.3% viewed 5+ pages
• 3,478 visitors appeared across 2+ different months (ongoing use)
• 863 visitors appeared across 2+ different years (durable, returning audience)

Growth and peaks over time

Recent years show major expansion:

• 2020: 9,101 events / 5,243 visitors
• 2022: 14,656 events / 9,650 visitors (step-change growth)
• 2023: 16,413 events / 9,010 visitors (highest total events year)
• 2024: 14,683 events / 8,631 visitors
• 2025: 8,291 events / 5,348 visitors (partial year, through Nov 24)

Notable intensity marker:

• Download share peaked in 2023 at ~24.3% of all events being downloads (3,986 downloads that year).

Top works driving reach + engagement

| Paper (short title) | Views | Unique visitors | Download events | Unique downloaders | | ———————————————————— | —–: | ————–: | ————–: | —————–: | | Response to Saad: The Sociology of Spirituality | 14,567 | 10,383 | 3,731 | 2,904 | | Toxic Socialization | 5,231 | 3,480 | 223 | 191 | | A Sociology of Tarot | 3,884 | 2,816 | 594 | 451 | | Rocket Scientists Guide to Money and the Economy | 3,290 | 2,253 | 171 | 148 | | Science of Ascension (neuro-grounded mysticism theory) | 3,224 | 2,373 | 332 | 253 | | Parable of the Isms (two cows) | 2,811 | 2,278 | 26 | 23 | | Mystical experience and global revolution | 2,269 | 1,602 | 167 | 143 | | What is Socialization | 1,479 | 862 | 49 | 43 | | How to Write a Sociology Paper | 1,396 | 981 | 43 | 37 | | Emotional abuse of our children / schools & institutions | 1,372 | 876 | 289 | 250 |

Standout impact marker (single-work influence + sustained multi-year use)

• “Response to Saad” accounts for ~17.2% of all interactions in the dataset.
• Sustained activity after release:
  • 2022: 4,411 events (1,195 downloads)
  • 2023: 4,598 events (1,170 downloads)
  • 2024: 3,941 events (1,000 downloads)
  • 2025 (partial): 1,624 events (366 downloads)
• International pull for this paper includes top countries such as the US, UK, Australia, Canada, South Africa, India, Germany, Italy, Brazil, and France.

Discoverability and network effects (how people find the work)

Referrers (when available) indicate multiple discovery channels:

• Search engines: 10,713 events (Google + Google Scholar + DuckDuckGo + Bing, etc.)
• Academia internal navigation: 12,014 events
• Athabasca University network referrals: 3,401 events (LMS/library-like referrals)
• Lightning Path / SpiritWiki network referrals: 1,206 events
• Email client referrals: 2,707 events (shared links)

The dataset shows sustained, growing, international reach (198 countries), broad portfolio uptake (360 distinct paper pages accessed), and deep engagement (high download rates, repeat/return visitors), consistent with strong and widening public-academic impact over nearly a decade.