ResearchGate

ResearchGate is a free social networking site and collaboration tool aimed at scientific researchers from all disciplines of science. It provides web applications including semantic searching (whole abstract searching), file-sharing, publication database sharing (e.g. endnote libraries), forums, methodology discussions, groups etc. Members can create their personal blog within the network. A recent calculation of members shows that ResearchGate has so far assembled a user base of over a million researchers from 192 countries.

Among other tools, ResearchGate has developed a semantic search engine that browses internal resources and major external research databases, including PubMed, CiteSeer, arXiv, NASA Library and others to find research papers. The search engine was developed to analyze a larger string of terms than is used in standard keyword searches – it will analyze entire abstracts – with the idea that more terms will allow more precise results.

The same kind of semantic matching is also used by the platform to support member networking. Through analyzing the information provided by the user on his or her profile page, the platform will suggest groups, other members and literature with similar research interests that the user might be interested in. In total, more than 1,100 groups have been created within ResearchGate. These can be open to all users or are set up as private groups, and any member can create a new group at anytime. Every group also has collaborative software; for example, a file-sharing tool allows users to collaborate with colleagues on writing and editing documents. Other tools include an appointment scheduler and a polling/survey option. Several scientific organizations and conferences use ResearchGate as a meeting place to list details, collaborate and communicate. The platform has also developed private Subcommunities for larger organizations, open only to members of the respective institution.

Company

On 8 September 2010 ResearchGate announced the completion of its Series A financing. The round was led by Benchmark Capital from Silicon Valley, who have also invested in twitter and ebay. Accel Partners’ Silicon Valley office who are investors of facebook; in addition to various prominent UK angel investors including former Accel partner Simon Levene; Bebo founder Michael Birch and Rolf Christof Dienst the general partner at Wellington Venture Capital have all invested in ResearchGate. Scout24 founder Joachim Schoss, idealo.com co-founder Martin Sinner, Sedo.com co-founder Ulrich Essmann and MyVideo.de founder Christian Vollmann have all joined the funding round. Ex-Facebook exec and current Benchmark Capital general partner Matt Cohler along with Simon Levene and Joachim Schoss joined ResearchGate’s board of directors.

ResearchBlog

ResearchBlog is the official blog of ResearchGate. It was launched in November 2009.

Members of the scientific network can submit postings from their individual ResearchGate profile - blogs to contribute to this larger, official blog. The highest-quality submissions are then selected and published. Made up of these postings, ResearchBLOG is a reputable source for science news, commentary, research and innovation from all academic disciplines.

In addition to writing articles for their individual blogs, all members can use the new microarticle template to summarize a published, peer-reviewed article or to present recent findings and important concepts. The “micro” of microarticle refers to the 306 character maximum that is allowed for these pieces. Similar to microblogging. These pieces are likewise posted by authors on their personal ResearchGate blogs and can be submitted to ResearchBLOG. The goal of these microarticles is to make the dissemination of research results faster in the scientific community. In light of this, each article must refer to a publication either found in the ResearchGate database, linked through an external URL or uploaded by the author. This way, users can access the cited article immediately after reading its review.

The individual ResearchGate blog entries and microarticles can be subscribed to via the newsfeed, enabling members of the network to keep up on their peers’ latest entries. An RSS feed is used to publish frequently updated work.