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ResearchGate – Q&A

13.05.2022 - 13:20 update 10.07.2023 - 10:29
Editors: MK

Life of the Research Community Online – What you should know about the ResearchGate

You have probably heard about the ResearchGate – a social networking site for scientists and researchers. But is it as popular as Facebook or LinkedIn? Is it worth to have one more account on the social media? Can it be helpful in my research? You can find out by reading the below Q&A prepared by the ResearchGate itself.

1. What is ResearchGate?

ResearchGate is the professional network for researchers. Over 20 million researchers use researchgate.net to share and discover research, build their networks, and advance their careers. Based in Berlin, ResearchGate was founded in 2008. Its mission is to connect the world of science and make research open to all.

2. Why is it important to have an account on ResearchGate?

Having an account on ResearchGate enables you to connect and collaborate with researchers around the world. We provide a home for you to share and discover research, build valuable connections, and measure your impact. Through our network you can unlock new opportunities that advance your career.

3. Who can set up an account on ResearchGate?

Our members are a global community of researchers working and studying in diverse scientific fields. To ensure high quality content and interactions on the network, membership is reserved for those who are involved in scientific research. It’s free to join ResearchGate; we just ask that you use your institutional email address to sign up so that we can verify that you are a researcher.

It’s not necessary to have an account to benefit from the knowledge on the network, however. We believe that scientific results should be accessible to everyone. That’s why you’re still welcome to browse ResearchGate and discover content such as publications, jobs, and discussions if you aren’t a researcher without being registered.

4. Do you have any information about a paper or a research that started thanks to ResearchGate?

Below are two collaborations from our Reseacher Stories series:

Alana Dantos Barros is a speech therapist with a master’s in public health, based in Brazil. Her research centers on how voice and interpersonal communication can improve the lives of transgender people.

Alana met her PhD co-supervisor, a specialist in speech therapy for transgender people and gender theory, on ResearchGate. She knows she would have struggled to find someone in Brazil with expertise in this niche area of speech therapy and gender. They began sharing information via email before finally meeting in person at a seminar in Brazil.

Amanda Wilson has been studying microbial risk since 2016, when she began her master’s in Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Arizona. She was looking for a mentor in mathematical modeling around infectious diseases when a UK-based researcher sent her a message on ResearchGate. The researcher was already on Amanda’s radar — she had read his work while completing her master’s, and considered his publications to be the “gold standard” for mathematical infectious disease modelling.

Within a month, she was on a flight to England. Those three weeks in the UK were just the beginning of a collaboration that’s turned out to be nothing short of prolific: since mid-2019, the two researchers have co-published several papers, and are still collaborating to this day.

5. What are the latest updates/new features of ResearchGate and what are the plans for its development in the future?

In January, we published our 2022 product roadmap outlining new features and updates to improve researchers’ experience on ResearchGate. Updates include improved profile design and metrics, increased accessibility to research with more full-text availability, a new feature called Researcher Spotlights, the launch of an Android app, and a new look and feel for the whole site.

You can stay up to date with our latest product announcements via the ResearchGate Updates blog.

Prepared by ResearchGate

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fot. materiały Uniwersytetu Śląskiego

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