ResearchGate

ResearchGate is a free, social networking site for researchers and other experts to share publications and data, ask and answer questions, share updates about research projects, and find jobs and collaborators.

It was launched in 2008, and there are over 20 million registered members (2021). The service makes it easy for you to contact researchers of your own academic field. ResearchGate has especially been favoured within life sciences.

Watch the video (6:17): Research Gate Basics.

Create Your profile

Get started at ResearchGate and create your own user profile. Present your education, competences, work experience and your personal interests in different academic fields. Your own professional public profile increases your coverage on the Web and provides you versatile support in networking. Mobile app is also available.

Share your publications (responsively), and access millions more

ResearchGate allows you to share your publications (see section Responsible sharing in scholarly networks), access other users’ written works and request articles from other researchers.

The ResearchGate’s search engine extends its reach to its own systems, and also international databases (among others, PubMed, CiteSeer, arXiv and the NASA HQ Library). You can also get recommendations about groups and literature that might interest you, along with other users interested in the same subjects.

Get stats and find out who’s been reading and citing your work – ask questions, get answers

In addition, ResearchGate provides you with information about your articles that are viewed, downloaded and cited. Feel free to create projects and participate the discussions in the forums – you can ask about and comment on academic subjects and issues.

Find the right job using research-focused job board

The website also has its own listings of open academic jobs.

Remember copyright and embargo

Keep copyrights and embargo dates in mind before uploading your publications into ResearchGate. Verify from your publisher, funder or your research organisation that you have the right to share research material. Many publishers have restrictions about sharing articles on commercial social networks. Always make sure that you know which version (published, final draft (i.e. accepted version), or preprint (i.e. submitted version)) can be shared and if commercial social networks can be used. Sherpa Romeo, for instance, can be used to check the terms. Notice that uploading manuscripts/articles to these kind of networking services is not considered as official self-archiving.

Also, acknowledge copyrights with downloading other researchers’ publications from ResearchGate for your personal use. The user is always responsible for using downloaded material. When needed, find out rights to use from the original source of information or ask for permission to use from the author or the owner of the publication.

Photo by Marco Verch.

Further information:

Meier, A. & Tunger, D. 2018. Survey on opinions and usage patters for the ResearchGate platform. PLOS ONE 13(10).

(8/2022 TR)