This document summarizes a panel discussion on ResearchGate, a social media network for researchers. The panelists answered 7 questions about using ResearchGate and how it compares to other research networks. Key points addressed include: ResearchGate's business model and use of user data; copyright and open access issues; who uses ResearchGate; reliability of answers on the site; differences between ResearchGate and networks like Academia.edu and LinkedIn; issues with ResearchGate metrics and scores; and how to integrate ResearchGate with profiles on other sites like ORCID. The takeaway message is to focus engagement on networks where your target audience is active and to use ORCID to maintain a complete publication profile across sites.

1. ResearchGate
Social media café - 1 December 2016
Wageningen UR Library - Ellen Fest & Hugo Besemer

2. Program
 7 Questions about ResearchGate
 Panel:
● Liping Weng (Department of Soil Quality)
● Ana Lopez Contreras (Food & Biobased Research)
● Viet Nguyen (Operations Research and Logistics)
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3. Thanks for your questions!
1.What can ResearchGate do with my data, what are the risks?
2.What about copyrights and open access?!
3.Who is on ResearchGate?
4.Do I get reliable answers to my questions?
5.What is the difference with other networks, like Academia.edu?
6.What is the value of the ResearchGate score
7.How does ResearchGate relate to ORCID, Linkedin etcetera and how
do we maintain those profiles?
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4. Q1: What can ResearchGate do with my
data, what are the risks?
 Terms of use
● German law applies
● ResearchGate presents itself as a service that
enables the users (you) to present information
● ResearchGate can not provide data to third parties
● You "indemnify" ResearchGate for copyright
infringements
 Sounds to good to be true, how do they make their
money?
4

5. So how do they make their money?
5
“What is ResearchGate's business model to
monetize in the long run? Will the service
stay free?
Yes, the service will always stay free for
scientists. First of all, as stated in our terms,
we are not allowed to sell our users' data to
any third party which is also not a good idea,
if you want to make money in a sensible way.
The first idea is to offer featured and
targeted job postings. We already started
that: Companies or research institutions can
post their job openings for free, but if they
want to get more visibility, they have to
pay. Secondly, we give scientific
conferences the opportunity to market
their events. And finally, we want to create
a marketplace for scientific products and
services. Very similar to Amazon, but for
viruses, bacterias, cell cultures etc. So
we show researchers where they can buy
their laboratory supplies and give them the
opportunity to give feedback to vendors and
review the products. “
interview with Ijad Madisch co-founder
of ResearchGate (17/1/2014; http://dld-
conference.com/articles/connecting-the-
dots-of-science)

6. Yet another risk: they pretend they are
you.....

7. Q2: What about copyrights and open
access?!
 Important: copyright rules allow making/sharing copies for personal
use.
● So.... You can always have the reference in your profile, and
answer requests
 Normal copyright rules apply, before uploading check
http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/
● Uploading Open Access publications is a way to get them
covered in Google Scholar
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8. Q2: What about copyrights and open
access?!
 Important: copyright rules allow making/sharing copies for personal
use.
● So.... You can always have the reference in your profile, and
answer requests
 Normal copyright rules apply, before uploading check
http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/
● Uploading Open Access publications is a way to get them
covered in Google Scholar
 Other publications: depends on agreements You => Wageningen UR
● If you / your client wants publications to be in the public
domain please consider creative commons licenses
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(more information)

9. Q3: Who is on ResearchGate?
 High profile European researchers seem to be missing
 Junior faculty members show high activity
 Broad survey showed academia.edu slightly more
popular than ResearchGate
 ResearchGate more popular in India, South Africa,
Andean countries
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Sources:
• Thelwall, Mike, and Kayvan Kousha. "ResearchGate: Disseminating, communicating, and measuring
Scholarship?." Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology 66.5 (2015): 876-889.
http://cba.scit.wlv.ac.uk/~cm1993/papers/ResearchGate.pdf
• Thelwall, M., & Kousha, K. (2015). ResearchGate Articles: Age, Discipline, Audience Size and Impact1, 1–
20. http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/~cm1993/papers/ResearchGateArticles_preprint.pdf (see also literature
review)

10. 10
Subjects & papers

11. 11
Countries

12. Q4: Do I get reliable answers to my
questions?
Beyond the anecdotal, there is a piece of research that we
found:
● Positive correlation with ResearchGate Score
● Positive correlation with length of answer
● Positive correlation with references
● Positive correlation with factual information
● Negative correlation with “chatiness”
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Li, Lei, et al. "Answer Quality Characteristics and Prediction on an Academic Q&A Site: A Case Study on
ResearchGate." Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on World Wide Web Companion. International
World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee, 2015.
http://www.www2015.it/documents/proceedings/companion/p1453.pdf

13. Q5: What is the difference with other
scholarly networks?
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Adapted from:
- Wee, Joan. “Research Network.” http://en.slideshare.net/ntunmg/research-network-30833267
- Aventurier, Pascal. "Academic social networks: Challenges and opportunities.
http://www.slideshare.net/paventurier/academic-social-networks-challenges-and-opportunities

14. Q5: What is the difference with other
scholarly networks?
14
Adapted from:
- Wee, Joan. “Research Network.” http://en.slideshare.net/ntunmg/research-network-30833267
- Aventurier, Pascal. "Academic social networks: Challenges and opportunities.
http://www.slideshare.net/paventurier/academic-social-networks-challenges-and-opportunities

15. Q6: RG-metrics: use it or not?
• full text or summary of all types read
• downloads of file on RG
→ reads breakdown for more details

16. Q6: RG-metrics: use it or not?
• based on the publication in
the RG-database
• exact coverage unclear

17. Q6: RG-metrics: use it or not?
The cumulative journal impact
factors of the publications

18. Q6: RG-metrics: use it or not?
RG-score:
• calculated by RG
• not fully disclosed
• based on contributions,
interactions and reputation

19. Q6: RG-metrics: use it or not?
1 Kraker, P., & Lex, E. (2015). A Critical Look at the ResearchGate Score as a Measure of Scientific
Reputation. In ASCW’15 Workshop at Web Science 2015 (pp. 7–9).
Serious short-comings:
The score is not transparent and irreproducible1
The score incorporates the journal impact factor to
evaluate individual researchers1
Changes in the score cannot be reconstructed1
Coverage for citations is limited and not defined

20. Q7: Can I exchange data with other
profiles?
 no exchange of data with LinkedIN
 send pubs from Staff Publications/GS to RG via RIS-
export (limited)
 import from reference manager (limited)
 alternative for complete publication overview: ORCID

21. Take home message: where to invest time?
ORCID → complete publication overview
where your audience is?
● companies, government → LinkedIN
● scientists → ResearchGate …
LinkedIN-profile or We@wur-page for visibility on
the web
ResearchGate → networking with peers

22. Questions?
This presentation is also available on:
http://www.slideshare.net/hugobesemer
http://www.slideshare.net/EllenFest
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The case of the dormant user
Information on author
profiles and social
networks is at available
at the Library's website