Field Reports

ResearchGATE

With more than 180.000 members, ResearchGATE is one of the most successful social networking platforms in the world of academics. Dr. Ijad Madisch is co-founder and CEO of ResearchGATE. He spends most of his time in Boston where the junior scientist, besides his work on the platform, is active at the Massachusetts General Hospital of Harvard Medical School in radiology research. Ijad Madisch studied medicine and computer science at the University of Hannover and at Harvard in Boston. He received highest honours, summa cum laude, for his dissertation in virology on Evolution, Gene Therapy, and Molecular Typing and in 2008, he was awarded the prize for doctoral candidates from the Medical University of Hannover. “My main task is, of course, to establish ResearchGATE in the world of research; close contact to the Community is therefore clearly a basic requirement, says Dr. Madisch. In his own scientific community, he is still very active. As author and co-author of 16 articles in professional journals and over 30 contributions to conferences, Ijad Madisch knows which problems and needs concern researchers when working together scientifically. In the interview, he provides a look behind the scenes of the Social Networking Platform.

What are fundamental organizational conditions for working on the platform ResearchGATE?

Our team is spread out all over the world. The key people are on the east coast of the USA and in Germany. Naturally, it is a challenge to manage everything across the Atlantic, but who, if not an Internet company, should be able to do so? We use every imaginable option for communication and are in close contact every day. The different geographical and cultural influences create enormous creative diversity. Especially in the light of the international aspirations of the platform, this is very helpful.

How was the idea for ResearchGate born and what advancements have been made in the Community in the past years?

Actually, the idea came from experience. We ourselves were strewn about the globe active in research and as the new so-called Web 2.0 functionalities came around, we found them just perfect for a virtual environment in which researchers could be interconnected with their colleagues, but also world-wide brand new contacts could be made and discussions could be initiated. After a closed beta-phase at the beginning of 2008, in which a few hundred researchers all over the world tested the first functionalities of our platform, we went online on May 23 2008. We wanted to develop and expand the applications on ReseachGate together with the researchers on the platform because it is the active users who know, of course, what can help them and what not. This is how it came about; parallel to the increase of the number of users, we continually added new functions online, be it the literature data base with different search engines, opportunities for file sharing, the open access repository, or the job board. And this process continues on; we are growing faster than ever. Just last week, we added a blog tool online – each user has his own blog; the best contributions are featured in the so-called ResearchBLOG and this way they are made accessible to a vast community.

Describe for us a typical user scenario! Why should a researcher or scholar open an account with ResearchGATE?

Since our application is so very diverse, there is not just one workflow, but rather a whole host of different user scenarios, some of which I can exemplify here. The focal point is the personal profile in which the researchers can provide information about their work and set up a list of their publications. Using the profile, the researchers can then connect and exchange news, recommend publications, or share other information. Many research groups and projects use closed groups to get organized and exchange ideas; with the file-sharing tool, they can work together on documents saving each version with the date of alteration. A discussion board, a calendar, and a survey tool are further applications within such groups. But also groups are used publically to exchange ideas on different topics. By now these include everything from laboratory methods to deep philosophical discussions. For already existing networks such as, for example, scientific/academic groups, we offer so-called sub-communities. These are closed areas within the platform to which only members of the specific organization have access.

What advantages do students have?

As student or young researcher, you may establish early your own network within ResearchGATE, take part in discussions, or search for literature or other resources. A student can, of course, keep watch specifically for a mentor and get an extensive impression of the research landscape. Further our Job Board offers scores of postings for PhD positions from all over the world.

How does the portal support the open access movement?

We have put much thought and lots of effort into it, the outcome being this unparalleled application. In our publication index, there are over 35 million publication metadata included and thus searchable. If researchers find their work in the index, they can link themselves with it as the author. For each publication in the data base, we check the so-called self-archiving regulations of the publisher. If authors are allowed to publish a full version of their work on their personal ResearchGATE homepage (their profile), then we call their attention to this automatically, and give them the opportunity to make the text available to the public. The majority of the publishing houses by now do entitle the authors to do this, only it was understandably difficult until now for them to check this out. Here we offer a comfortable solution that is also widely accepted and used! Our information pages offer more information on this topic: http://www.self-archiving.me.

Will ResearchGate be evaluated? Are studies planned for the future?

Yes, we are working together with a professor from the JFK School. The influence of such a platform on research productivity is to be analyzed.

What are your "lessons learned" from working on a social networking portal?

We have learned mainly that it is the users who know best which functions they need and which not. There is nothing more valuable than the feedback from the researchers on our platform!

Do you yourself also use other social networking services, for example, Facebook?

Yes, I use Facebook myself very intensively.

What are the plans for ResearchGATE for the future?

The latest large update was the user blogs and the aggregated ResearchBLOG. Both applications are to facilitate the exchange and spreading of research results. We would still like to optimize in this area. But also online collaboration is an important topic. We are working right now on a virtual conferencing tool that is to be integrated into the ReasearchGATE platform.

Further information on the topic of networks in Internet is offered under the heading Social Networking in the section Didactic Design.

Erstellt am 23.11.2009