The November–December period was a particularly important phase in the Fraknói Research Group’s activities in 2024, which also impacted the website’s traffic. Between November 1 and December 31, 2024, more than 1,400 visitors accessed the website. The peak occurred on November 21, with over 100 users on that day alone.
Most visitors came from Hungary, followed by Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Austria, Romania, and Slovakia, where users explored news on institutumfraknoi.hu and engaged with its diverse academic and popular science content. The most visited pages included the news about the Fraknói centenary, the Fraknói Memorial Book, the international conference in Rome, and the CVH and CST series.
Beyond direct website visits, many readers arrived via the Research Group’s social media platforms (primarily Facebook) and the Magyar Kurír website. The Fraknói Memorial Book (Fraknói Emlékkönyv), uploaded to academia.edu, also attracted significant interest.
Another notable source of website traffic was visitors navigating from MTMT (the Hungarian Scientific Bibliography). Some arrived through the publications of the Research Group’s members, but most were directed from the Research Group’s dedicated MTMT profile pages.
Bibliometric Data and Research Group Performance
The scientific metrics of these profile pages, much like the previously cited website traffic statistics, deserve mention:
MTA-PPKE Lendület Egyháztörténeti Kutatócsoport (MTA-PPKE Lendület Church History Research Group) (2012–2017)
Total publications: 133
Total citations: 2,408
MTA-PPKE Fraknói Vilmos Római Történeti Kutatócsoport (MTA-PPKE Fraknói Vilmos Roman Historical Research Group) (2017–2022)
Total publications: 518
Total citations: 4,297
ELKH-PPKE-PTE Fraknói Vilmos Római Történeti Kutatócsoport (ELKH-PPKE-PTE Fraknói Vilmos Roman Historical Research Group) (2022–2023)
Total publications: 611
Total citations: 4,453
HUN-REN-PPKE-PTE Fraknói Vilmos Római Történeti Kutatócsoport (HUN-REN-PPKE-PTE Fraknói Vilmos Roman Historical Research Group) (2023–present)
Total publications: 740
Total citations: 4,521
The data should be interpreted linearly in accordance with the different funding cycles and institutional frameworks. They indicate that, when compared to research groups established within the Lendület program and university-based TKI research groups originally founded within Lendület, the Fraknói Research Group currently holds the leading position in both key bibliometric indicators—both in absolute terms and, in most cases, proportionally over time.
For comparison, the total number of publications of the second, third, and fourth most productive research groups—focused on medieval economic history, Greek Catholic studies, and medieval military and diplomatic history—are:
630 (medieval economic history)
459 (Greek Catholic studies)
433 (medieval military and diplomatic history)
Citation distribution shows some variation:
2nd place: Medieval economic history research group (1,467 citations)
3rd place: Medieval military and diplomatic history research group (1,143 citations)
4th place: Holy Crown research group (958 citations), which is particularly significant given that this number is based on only 312 affiliated publications.
Conclusions and Future Outlook
The above statistics clearly illustrate the significance of institutumfraknoi.hu, which has been systematically developed over more than a decade to provide high-quality academic content. They also highlight the effectiveness of disseminating the Fraknói Research Group’s scientific results, as well as the benefits of regular and strategic engagement with social media platforms, PPKE’s online presence, and external institutional and news portals.
The quantitative indicators of scientific performance and reception are remarkable. However, these must be complemented by systematic, in-depth, and above all, unbiased professional evaluation of qualitative components. The peer review process is greatly facilitated by the Fraknói Research Group’s own and collaboratively produced international scientific publications, available Open Access at:
https://institutumfraknoi.hu/kiadvanyok.
