Exploring Goodreads reviews for book impact assessment

Kai Wang, Xiaojuan Liu and Yutong Han

Journal of Informetrics, 2019, vol. 13, issue 3, 874-886

Abstract: Online book reviews reflect readers’ attitudes and opinions and serve as a data source for book impact assessment. Most research has only focused on the number of ratings and reviews to assess the impact of books. However, it is necessary to more thoroughly explore online book reviews, to analyze the viewpoints and sentiments expressed in them and the identity and motivation of the reviewers in order to evaluate the value of different types of book reviews. In this study, we collect Goodreads reviews of books indexed by the Book Citation Index and consider them according to the following three aspects: the popularity of highly cited books in Goodreads, the influence of reviewer roles (of author, librarian, and ordinary user) on book reviews, and the emotions and opinions behind reviewers’ ratings. Results consider the number of books reviewed in different disciplines, the variations in ratings of highly cited and non-highly cited books, differences in book reviews given by the reviewer roles, and the way reviewers express their sentiments about the books. The study concludes that if online reviews are to be used as indicators of book impact assessment, key considerations should include the subject discipline, the reviewer's role, and the sentiment polarity.

Keywords: Online book review; Altmetrics; Sentiment polarity; Reviewer role; Book impact assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:infome:v:13:y:2019:i:3:p:874-886

DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2019.07.003

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