Research Guides: Research Impact: ResearchGate &amp; Academia.edu

ResearchGate & Academia.edu

ResearchGate and Academia.edu are both social networking sites where authors can create profiles linking their scholarly works. These are commercial websites and are subject to the terms and conditions of their respective corporate owners.

While they can be useful for networking and keeping up to date in your field, the metrics that are generated by such sites may not be accurate, and should be used with caution. For more information:

Coalition for Responsible Sharing
Information on article sharing from the perspective of the publishers.
Do ResearchGate Scores create ghost academic reputations?
Published in the journal Scientometrics, "this study investigates whether it is reasonable to employ the RG Score as evidence of scholarly reputation" [from abstract].
Metrics Mania: The Case against Academia.edu
From The Chronicle of Higher Education
ResearchGate: Publishers Take Formal Steps to Force Copyright Compliance
Article on copyright compliance and Researchgate from The Scholarly Kitchen blog.
Should you #DeleteAcademiaEdu? On the role of commercial services in scholarly communication
A social networking site is not an open access repository
On the benefits of using an institutional repository over academic social networking sites. From the University of California's Office of Scholarly Communication.
Understanding Academia.edu and ResearchGate
Overview of the pros and cons of these scholarly social networks from the University of Oklahoma.