High readership on academic social platforms could poorly reflect conservation interest

Abstract Social media are being used increasingly by the science community to share research output with a wide audience and seek feedback. They also as alternatives traditional citation-based assessment of impacts scientific products even inform employment decisions in academia. One these platforms, ResearchGate, is popular application more than 20 million users who discuss products. We report on remarkably high level interest one our publications ResearchGate about Eurasian wild pig Sus scrofa Iran, poorly studied species conservation priority region. The number reads publication was c. 1,500 times higher mean per for scientists from range American Asian universities. Comparison other statistics reader feedback indicates resulted data-gathering processes unrelated details research. Although this raises questions regarding ability similar platforms measure reliably, we use popularity article an opportunity advocate understudied region species.