A part of the Mississippi State University Libraries' Scholarly Communications Initiative. Developed with Sheeji Kathuria and Pattye Archer.

1. Social Networking for
Academics: ResearchGate
and Academia.edu
Amanda Clay Powers
Mississippi State University Libraries
February 26, 2016

2. Social Networking
• Popular
• General
• Useful in certain
circumstances
• Not focused on
research
• Discipline-
dependent

3. • Social Networks for
Researchers?
• Popular:
• ResearchGate
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Academia.edu
Nature 2014: Survey of Scholars on Social Media
http://www.nature.com/news/online-collaboration-scientists-and-the-social-network-1.15711

4. Why Social Networks for Researchers?
• Research wants to be shared widely
• Tracking your research distribution
• Creating collaboration
• Staying up-to-date on colleagues publications
• Creating a professional online presence
• Developing a national reputation (promotion!)

5. Obstacles
• Author rights restrictions
• Choosing the right tools
• Creating compelling profiles
• Connecting with appropriate colleagues
• Optimizing for online reputation

6. Which Social Network?
• Popular
• Research Gate
• Social Sciences
• Sciences
• Engineering
• Academia.edu
• Humanities
• Social Sciences

7. What Else is Out There?
Features Mendeley Google
Scholar
ORCID Researcher
ID
ScopusID Research
Gate
Academia.edu
Publications (list and linked) y y y y y y y
Publication Metrics y y n y y y y
Social Media Links n n n n n y y
Biographical / Interest / Affiliation y y y y n y y
Number of Accounts > 3 million n/a >950K >270k n/a ~5 million >14.6 million
Uploading Feature y n n n n y y
Manual Additions y y y n n y y
Automated Publications Additions many search
engines +
import RIS or
BibTeX
Google
Scholar
Crossref +
Scopus +
RsearcherID +
DataCite +
PubMedCent
ral Europe
WoS + ORCID Scopus PubMed +
IEEE +
CiteSeer +
RepEc + BMC
Crossref + Microsoft
AS+ PubMed + ArXiv
Adapted from http://libguides.library.uu.nl/researchimpact/profiles

8. Why Academia.edu & ResearchGate?
• Interactive
• Focused on natural
research communities
• Institution-based
• Shareable
• Low-maintenance

9. What are they doing?
http://blogs.nature.com/naturejobs/2015/09/07/social-media-the-art-of-self-promotion

10. Academia.edu
• Started by Richard Price, a philosopher from University of
Oxford
• Started in 2008
• 14 million users
• Social Sciences and Humanities
• Anyone can join
• 15k new papers daily

11. ResearchGate
• Started by Ijad Madisch, a Harvard-educated Berlin MD/Virologist
• 5 million users (10k new users daily)
• Started in 2008
• Sciences and Social Sciences
• Associated with a Research Institution
• 2 million uploads of papers / month
• 1300 sets of raw data / negative results daily

14. When can you upload?
• Depends on your Author Contract (!)
• Pre- or Post-Prints
• Not Usually Journal PDFs
• Use Sherpa-Romeo to determine legality
• Comply with Take-Down Notices!

15. Sherpa-Romeo / Contracts
• Archiving status
• Type of materials to archive
• Open Access status
• Publishers Conditions

16. Questions?
Amanda Clay Powers
Associate Professor
Head of Research Services
Social Media Research Librarian
Mississippi State University Libraries
apowers@library.msstate.edu
@amandaclay

17. • Hennies, H., Friderichs, E., & Schneider, J. (1988). Receptor
binding, analgesic and antitussive potency of tramadol and
other selected opioids. Arzneimittel-Forschung/Drug Research,
38(7), 877-880.

18. • http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-
6736%2814%2962230-3/fulltext
• http://www.nature.com/content/authortips/
• https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yuejia_Lee
• https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michele_Mcdonnall/info
• https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hao_Bai4