ResearchGate
The academic social network where researchers share papers — and their metrics.
At a Glance
- Publisher
- ResearchGate GmbH
- Coverage
Not a curated index — a social platform where researchers post papers, preprints, and data; hundreds of millions of publication records and 20M+ members (verify current counts).
- Access
Free with registration.
- Free alternative
- OpenAlex, Google Scholar, institutional repositories.
- Regional
Global membership.
Our Take
ResearchGate is where a lot of researchers actually park their PDFs and network, which makes it a practical place to find a full text you cannot otherwise access and to reach an author directly. Its stats and RG Score are engagement metrics, not scholarly impact measures, and much self-archived content sits in copyright grey areas. Treat it as a convenience layer, not a database: good for grabbing a PDF or contacting an author, unreliable as a systematic source. Use it to request full text; do discovery and citation work in a proper index.
Power Tips
- Use it to request a PDF directly from the author when you hit a paywall.
- Ignore the RG Score as an impact measure — it is engagement, not citations.
- Do not rely on it for systematic searching; verify and cite from the publisher of record.
Alternatives & Complements
Academia.edu, OpenAlex, Google Scholar, institutional repositories
Figures last verified: June 15, 2026