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Facebook for Researchers
05 December 2009
By Tomasz Liskiewicz
I have signed up to the ResearchGATE network (https://www.researchgate.net/). Just another social network? Possibly, but that one is designed specifically for researchers so I thought I will give it a go. I have to admit that my first impression is very positive. The network is relatively young (started a year ago) but there is already more that 180.000 researchers signed up, which should give a good interaction opportunity. Like Facebook and other social networking sites, ResearchGATE allows the user to create a profile, exchange messages and build groups but it also offers some extra features dedicated to scientists. My favourite one is 'Network Graph'. This is a pretty smart tool, which visualises scientific connections using keywords from publications, groups and researchers profiles. It quickly showed me my existing links but also new potential contacts.
I think that the major advantage of the platform is that it has been created by researchers, so they should understand our needs and preferences very well. Anyway, I set up my personal profile and contacted other researchers from my field. Let's see how it works in practice...
Are you a member of any social network for researchers? Do you find it useful?
Deborah Conte07 December 2009 at 02:49 PM
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Hi, I'm a (very recent) member of Nature Network, another networking site for scientists similar to the one you described above. http://network.nature.com/ On a first impression, personally I think that these kind of things could become quite useful once they take off a bit. Currently I think a lot of people (OK really I mean me here but I get this impression of others too) haven't found the time to spend to properly set up the profile with puclication and project information etc. Having said that, I used to be involved in a group that organised a small seminar series within our department. There already existed a main seminar series in the department at the time, so we often tried to focus our seminars on younger researchers - late stage PhDs and early stage post-docs - a great networking opportunity for all involved as well as being a great CV boost for those invited to give the seminars. And in my experience, it was often incredibly difficult to find information about speakers to invite. More often than not, we were lucky if the website for a lab of interest actually listed even just the name of their post-docs, nevermind any further info about what they actually do. Based on that, I believe that a little perseverance with these science networking sites and finding the time to put the effort in could eventually reap useful rewards. The one you've described sounds very positive, I might check it out myself! I guess I better write "update profile" into my "to-do" list then... P.S. As an ironic final note, I believe Facebook itself also has some kind of network for scientists...but I confess I find it hard to take that seriously. Perhaps I shouldn't write it off so quickly - anyone have any thoughts on this?
Sarah Davies08 December 2009 at 03:01 PM
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Hi - thanks for the link, though I notice it's actually for SCIENTISTS and not RESEARCHERS - so I guess I wouldn't be welcome there, what with my AHRC / ESRC funding and all... The one I've come across www.academia.edu. I like the interface, but haven't been tempted to sign up so far. Maybe your experiences will change my mind, Tomasz - has anyone interesting got back in touch with you?
Daniel Weekes08 December 2009 at 04:14 PM
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Hi, You took the words right out of my mouth there Sarah, I think it is REALLY important that any researchers online community should be all inclusive at not just for scientists or social svientists or whatever. Off to have a look at www.academia.edu.... Dan
Tomasz Liskiewicz08 December 2009 at 09:36 PM
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Hi, I signed up to RG some time ago and since then I have been approached by couple of researchers from my area. In general, I think social networks are as useful as we want them to be. If we establish our own network of contacts and spend enough time on maintaining it, we might expect benefits for our research work but also a lot of fun.
Tennie Videler08 December 2009 at 10:15 PM
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Hi, I've put up a list of online researcher networks I know of here: www.vitae.ac.uk/rscommunities , second module down. Please let me know of any others you know of and whether you find this useful. Thanks!
Elizabeth Dodson08 December 2009 at 10:21 PM
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Thanks Tennie, spotted your links page earlier this evening - really useful to start getting these networks listed together so we can compare what they offer, their usability and their popularity.
Matthew Salois16 December 2009 at 05:44 PM
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After signing up for both Academia.edu and ResearchGATE.net, I am driven to conclude that I prefer Academia.edu. First, as a social scientist (economics) I found more people in my discipline on Academia.edu. Second, I find the website more intuitive and easier to use. Lastly, Academia.edu has already helped me to make contacts. Just today, someone sent me an email using the website's email function. And the website has a nice feature that sends me updates on google searches for my name and research. The day after I signed up to Academic.edu I received an email from them saying that someone reached my Academia.edu profile through a google search using "University of Reading" and "Matthew Salois" as keyword search terms! Of course, I could have an internet stalker, but hopefully it was just someone interested in my research!
Sarah Davies16 December 2009 at 10:29 PM
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Well, having an internet stalker would be *almost* as flattering as someone being interested in your research ;-) That does sound an interesting function, though - nice to know when someone other than yourself is googling you...
Elizabeth Dodson16 December 2009 at 11:06 PM
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Matthew, I totally agree. I think Academia.edu benefits from incorporating a wider range of disciplines and is very user friendly. The problem that I now have is that I have signed up to a few professional networking sites and probably do not have time to use and update them all. As they all have their strengths (and some useful contacts) I wonder whether it is better to leave dormant profiles all over the place or stick with one site and spend a useful amount of time exploring it.