A ResearchGate-way to an international academic community?

Academic Social Networks (ASNs) are becoming an important tool in the professional lives of researchers, providing an online space for international academic discourse. At the micro-level, ASNs serve to facilitate, (a) knowledge sharing, (b) networking, and (c) identity-building. ASNs such as ResearchGate (RG) may support entry into scholarly communities by researchers who are otherwise marginalized in a modern academic environment that privileges research conducted by established researchers in well-resourced institutions in mostly western countries. This national study follows a recently published case study of Japan, and surveys the use of RG by more than 500 researchers across the country. The authors investigate participants’ awareness and regularity of use of the 3 micro-level components of RG, and the benefits and challenges of their adoption. The study finds that while RG is largely perceived as valuable for participants, use is unbalanced toward knowledge sharing, which is further limited to posting English-language outputs and accessing literature for personal consumption. Thus, RG may be positioned as a tool rather than a community, the latter requiring a more balanced engagement with the platform, particularly in the networking area. Some practical ideas for achieving this are offered in the discussion.