| Votes | By | Price | Discipline | Year Launched |
| ResearchGate | FREE | Interdisciplinary |
ResearchGate is one of the largest academic social networks, created to help researchers share publications, discover collaborators, and build visibility around their scientific work. Launched in 2008, it grew rapidly by offering a Facebook-like interface for scholars—complete with profiles, publication lists, Q&A forums, metrics, and follower counts. Today it hosts over 20 million users across disciplines, making it one of the most widely recognized research-networking platforms.
Platform Purpose
ResearchGate aims to centralize a researcher’s online identity: publications, preprints, conference papers, and data can be uploaded or linked to the profile. The platform encourages interaction—following peers, asking questions, responding to discussions, and connecting with potential collaborators. Its feed-based system ensures users are exposed to papers relevant to their networks rather than purely keyword-based search results.
Strengths
A Wide, Global Network
With millions of users, ResearchGate provides exposure for researchers in regions where institutional visibility is limited. The platform’s messaging, project pages, and community Q&A help facilitate interdisciplinary communication.
Research Metrics
ResearchGate offers metrics such as RG Score, Reads, and Citations, which—while controversial—give users fast, platform-based performance indicators. These numbers have limited academic standing but are used informally for quick visibility assessments.
Easy Content Sharing
Uploading papers, supplementary materials, or preprints is straightforward. For many researchers, ResearchGate serves as a quick dissemination platform parallel to institutional repositories.
Limitations
Copyright & Compliance Issues
One of the biggest criticisms is ResearchGate’s history of allowing users to upload publisher-copyrighted PDFs. Several major publishers (e.g., Elsevier, ACS) have issued takedown notices or pursued legal action, forcing ResearchGate to enforce stricter copyright controls.
Quality Control & Reproducibility
Unlike curated repositories, ResearchGate does not enforce peer-review status or data standards. The presence of preprints, drafts, and sometimes low-quality material can weaken trust in the platform.
Limited Impact in Formal Evaluations
Despite its popularity, ResearchGate metrics are generally not recognized by funding agencies, grant panels, or hiring committees, which prefer established bibliographic indexes (Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar).