Academia.edu & ResearchGate

[Adelaide9216]

Are they worth the hype? Which ones is best in your opinion?

[PsyDuck90]

I've seen ResearchGate pop up in searches before. It kind of seems to be a social media platform for academia. I personally don't know anyone who necessarily uses it. I think it's kind of like any other social media. LinkedIn can be useful if you use it, but totally useless if you don't. I've never heard of academia.edu. 

[Meraki]

Many academics post their full-text articles on both of those sites, articles that otherwise might not be available to an audience outside of a university setting. For example, when I was applying for PhD programs and did not have access to journal databases (I was not currently a student), I found many of my potential PI's articles through ResearchGate and Academia and other sources on Google Scholar and researcher websites. So, it's a nice way to put your work out there for practitioners and other audiences, although I don't know the rules about when you are allowed to post your full-text articles without infringing on copyrights. 

I have a ResearchGate account. It is useful for following scholars whose work you are interested in, as you can scroll through your feed (similar to Facebook and LinkedIn) and see their updates for new articles they've published or projects they're working on, although they don't always upload full-text documents. I like this because sometimes I see articles that otherwise wouldn't be on my radar. I wouldn't say it makes a huge difference in my productivity or anything like that, but it's a nice thing to scroll through when I have (or pretend to have) some downtime and want to see what other scholars are up to without searching them individually through databases and Google Scholar. It's also a nice way to follow your cohort or faculty who may not be in your area of research interest, but you want to keep in touch and see what they're working on. Many of my faculty and peers use it, and I would probably describe it as a LinkedIn-type site for academics.

Another benefit is when I'm Googling research methods questions, I often come across answers from ResearchGate. You can post questions there and the community provides their insights and resources. This is similar to Stackexchange. 

I don't have an Academia account and haven't really looked at it beyond the occasional article pdf I'm searching. 

 

Edited January 12, 2019 by Meraki

[Mickey26]

I find that ResearchGate is prevalent for certain disciplines only; for example, Psychology (my field) uses it quite a bit. Engineering? Perhaps not used quite as frequently. As Meraki reiterated above, it's like LinkedIn but for academics, where you can request the full-text of journal articles that you may not otherwise have access to.

[juilletmercredi]

I saw no purpose for joining ResearchGate, as you can access all of their full-text articles without logging in. All their accounts seemed good for was spamming me with a whole lot of emails.

Academia.org is less-used in my fields (psychology and public health), so less useful.

[CozyD]

I've been using ResearchGate a lot to get full-text articles. Some people have things posted publicly, so anyone can download them, but also lots of other researchers will send you articles if you request them through the site. I filled out my page with all my publications/presentations too. I don't know if that's made a difference to whether people have been willing to send me copies of their work. A few people have also read my work on the site. I hope but have no confirmation that the site will prove to be useful in networking sorts of ways too.

[Adelaide9216]

What about having your own website ?

[shadowclaw]

I use ResearchGate for three things: 1) to find full-text articles that I do not have access to digitally (usually 1990s and earlier are only available in physical form for me, with some exceptions, although I rarely need access to these), 2) to make my work more visible and accessible to others, 3) to ask questions that I can't find the answer to elsewhere (e.g., request info on a certain topic, troubleshoot software, etc.).

It's also been suggested on here in the past that having a good web presence is helpful for admissions because your advisor and the admissions committee look you up. I recall one thread in particular where someone said that they were in an office and spotted a list of applicant names with a note or title that said something along the lines of "couldn't find them on the Internet." So having an account on one of these platforms might help you look more professional or something. I don't know.

I also think there's value in having your own website. If you intend to work in academia, you will need one eventually anyway. The website is helpful for some of the same reasons as ResearchGate and Academia.edu - you can post full-text articles and make your work accessible and visible. However, it's also a good spot to show off your research in a way that's more friendly to a broader audience. You can write up lay summaries, add photos and videos, and otherwise be way more engaging on a personal website. Having a place with your contact info is also super handy, too. I've had people contact me through my website about a variety of different things. I occasionally look at my website stats and I get several visitors each week, so people are looking at it for some reason! Oh, and it's also potentially useful during job searches - I'm sure it's handy to be able to point towards your website.