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Research Sharing and Academic Networking: Home

Introduction

An image of circles and lines forming a network.Academic social networking sites allow researchers to share their research and connect with peers in their field.

Two of the most widely used platforms are ResearchGate and Academia.edu. Both platforms allow users to:

  • Share research papers
  • Follow other researchers and research topics
  • Track statistics on the impact of their work
  • View academic job postings

Important things to note:

  • Do not use your umnetID and password as your login credentials for these sites. Your login credentials can be compromised when they pass through servers with less security.
  • Be sure to check the copyright restrictions of any research paper before you share it on an academic networking site, even if the paper is your own. If you have any questions, contact your liaison librarian.

ResearchGate

Button linking to Research GateResearchGate is used by over 12 million researchers, who have shared over 100 million publications. It is used by a larger number of researchers in science-related fields such as medicine, biology, and engineering.
(Source: Fact Sheet on https://www.researchgate.net/press)

Features:

  • Read and discuss publications
  • Share your research process
  • Post questions and receive input from peers
  • Provides metrics to measure your research impact: the h-index, RG Score and RG Reach (read more on ResearchGate.net)

Academia.edu

Button linking to Academia.eduAcademia.edu is used by over 52 million academics. 18 million research papers have been shared, and the site sees over 36 million unique visitors every month.
(Source: https://www.academia.edu/about)

Features:

  • Post draft papers for comments and feedback from colleagues
  • Provides suggestions of researchers and research interests to follow
  • View analytics on the users who have viewed your papers
  • More analytics features are available with their paid Premium account option

Citation Managers and Academic Networking

Some citation managers also have social sharing and following functions. If you already use these platforms to manage your research, you may be interested in exploring the networking options they offer.

Mendeley:

  • Over 6 million users
  • The Groups feature allows users to discover and discuss research on specific topics
  • The news feed suggests articles to read and researchers to follow
  • Mendeley Stats tracks the number of views, downloads, citations, and media mentions of your research

Zotero: