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Should I use Academia.edu and ResearchGate for my assignments?

by Robert Alfis on 2021-03-11T17:45:00+00:00 | 0 Comments

What is Academia.edu and ResearchGate?

Academia.edu and ResearchGate are essentially research social media websites. Researchers create profiles to share their work, research interests and connect with other researchers.

You can find many articles through these two websites but should you use them in your assignment?

It is always best to search for material through the library databases first. Material found through the library website is of a good academic standard for you to use.

Like using any other web resource, it is important to think critically about what you find. Many articles on these platforms are 'preprints', which are early drafts of the research before the have been peer-reviewed. The peer-reviewed article is always better to cite if it is available as the peer-review process can spot errors and the author may have made a number of important revisions before the work was finally published. Additionally many works are uploaded to these platforms against publisher's or copyright policies.

If you come across an article on Academia.edu or ResearchGate that you would like to use, see if it is available through the library website first and use the version found there. If it is not, then try to determine whether it is a preprint or peer-reviewed version of the article. This is usually stated up the top of the first page. You should also consider the following:

Currency:  when was the information posted, has it been revised or updated, does it reflect current knowledge, do the links work?

Relevance: who is the page aimed at, is the information at an appropriate level, how does it compare to other sources on the same topic, would you be happy to use this a source if you were writing an assignment/dissertation?

Authority: who wrote the page, do they have any qualifications & and are they relevant to the topic, is there contact information, what is the top level domain e.g .com (companies) .gov (government), .org (non-profit organisation), .edu/.ac (educational )?

Accuracy, what the source of the information, is it evidence-based, what kind of language is used, what is the tone of the page, is it free from grammatical or spelling errors, can you verify any of the information independently?

Purpose: why does the page exist, is the author trying to inform, persuade, entertain or sell you something, are the intentions clear, is it objective, Are there political, cultural or other biases?

If you are still uncertain just ask us through the Ask-a-Librarian webchat found throughout the library website or though email at [email protected]

For more information on these platforms check out the following resources:

 


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