Motivation for downloading academic publications

Downloads have been considered as supplemental to citations in reflecting the impact of scientific research activities and scientific output, yet the motivations to download a specific publication has not been fully explored. In scientific evaluation practice, unclear motivations could lead to difficulties for evaluating the impact of academic literature without providing a cogent interpretation of downloads as an alternative metric. To fill this gap, an expanded Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to investigate motivations for downloading academic literature was proposed and the effectiveness verified using questionnaire data containing 480 respondents. The results show that the degree of usefulness of literature to users and the degree of relevance of literature to users were the primary factors that drive users to download specific literature. Due to the consistency between downloading and citing in reflecting the usefulness, downloads is an effective metric to supplement citation metrics in evaluating the impact of academic literature. •The technology acceptance model (TAM) was expanded to include perceived enjoyment and perceived relevance.•Perceived usefulness and perceived relevance are the primary factors that drive users to download academic literature.•Perceived enjoyment and perceived ease of use affect users' download behavior indirectly through perceived usefulness.•Downloads is an effective metric to supplement citation metrics in evaluating the impact of academic literature.