The journal Intelligence is published by Elsevier and I do not wish them any harm for supporting this publication. Indeed, I am happy that I was able to be the Editor of Intelligence Volume 41, Issue 6 November/December 2013 ISSN: 0160-2896 Special Issue: The Flynn Effect Re-Evaluated.
And thereby hangs a tale. After about a year of work, much of it made harder by my total unwillingness to utilize the clunky Elsevier editing system, I managed to complete the issue. It has been well received and one paper on the intelligence of the Victorians (which I had independently created some publicity for) was very heavily downloaded.
As you would expect of me, I wrote a cheery introduction to the delights within the special issue and now Elsevier has sent me the downloading figures (July 13-March 14) for my editorial. I hasten to add that I tried hard to make the introduction interesting.
Total article viewings as shown on the Article Usage Dashboard were 180. Not bad for an introduction which most people might understandably skip.
Intrigued I went back to my own blog figures and found that the same article in the same period on my blogspot had been viewed 282 times.
Possibly there is an effect of a pay-wall (one must be open to all hypotheses) but it is interesting that the fine-tuned PR machine of a major, long-established academic publisher can so easily be surpassed by the loyal readers of an obscure blog.
(By looking at it again by clicking on the link below you will quickly make the contrast in viewings even bigger).
http://drjamesthompson.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/editorial-intelligence-special-issue.html
As a loyal reader of your blog, I would like to think that Elsevier has brought you a better class of readers than us, if not more of them.
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