Abstract
The popularity of academic social networks like ResearchGate and Academia.edu indicates that scholars want to share their work, yet for universities with open access (OA) policies, these sites may be competing with institutional repositories for content. Our study seeks to reveal researcher practices, attitudes, and motivations around uploading their work to ResearchGate and complying with an institutional Open Access Policy. We conducted a population study to examine the participation by 558 full‐ ti me University of Rhode Island faculty members in the OA Policy and Research‐ Gate, followed by a survey of 728 full‐ ti me URI faculty members about their participation in the two services.
ResearchGate vs. the Institutional Repository: Competition or Complement?
The popularity of academic social networks like ResearchGate and Academia.edu indicates that scholars want to share their work, yet for universities with open access (OA) policies, these sites may be competing with institutional repositories for content. Our study seeks to reveal researcher practices, attitudes, and motivations around uploading their work to ResearchGate and complying with an institutional Open Access Policy. We conducted a population study to examine the participation by 558 full‐ ti me University of Rhode Island faculty members in the OA Policy and Research‐ Gate, followed by a survey of 728 full‐ ti me URI faculty members about their participation in the two services.