Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

ResearchGate VS Open Access Button

Compare ResearchGate VS Open Access Button and see what are their differences

ResearchGate logo ResearchGate

Access scientific knowledge, and make your research visible

Open Access Button logo Open Access Button

Find free research & help make more of it publicly available
  • ResearchGate Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-27
  • Open Access Button Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-08-22

ResearchGate

Release Date
2008 January
Startup details
Country
Germany
State
Berlin
City
Berlin
Founder(s)
Horst Fickenscher
Employees
250 - 499

ResearchGate features and specs

  • Networking Opportunities
    ResearchGate allows researchers to connect, collaborate, and communicate with others in their field.
  • Access to Research
    Users can access a wide range of publications, datasets, and other research outputs that may not be available elsewhere.
  • Visibility and Impact
    Researchers can increase the visibility of their work and track its impact through metrics such as views, downloads, and citations.
  • Collaborative Features
    The platform supports sharing and peer feedback, which can help improve the quality of research outputs.
  • Profile Customization
    Researchers can create detailed profiles showcasing their publications, projects, skills, and academic achievements.
  • Job Opportunities
    The platform features job postings and career development resources tailored to researchers and academics.
  • Discussion Forums
    ResearchGate includes forums where users can ask questions, share insights, and engage in scientific discussions.

Possible disadvantages of ResearchGate

  • Quality Control
    Not all uploaded content is peer-reviewed, which can result in the dissemination of lower-quality or erroneous research.
  • Copyright Issues
    Authors sometimes upload versions of their work without regard for copyright agreements, which can lead to legal complications.
  • Privacy Concerns
    The platform requests a significant amount of personal and professional information, which may raise privacy concerns for some users.
  • Spam and Unsolicited Messages
    Some users report receiving spam or unsolicited requests, which can be distracting and reduce the platform’s usability.
  • Metric Misuse
    Impact metrics like views and citations can be manipulated or misinterpreted, leading to skewed perceptions of a researcher’s influence.
  • Commercialization
  • User Interface
    Some users find the interface to be less intuitive compared to other academic networking platforms.

Open Access Button features and specs

No features have been listed yet.

ResearchGate videos

What is ResearchGate & how can I use it?

More videos:

  • Review - ResearchGate, Academia.edu, and Social Networking Sites
  • Review - Selection of quality |Articles| |Journals| |ResearchGate| |Emerald| |Scopus|

Open Access Button videos

Open Access Button

More videos:

  • Review - Open Access Button JISC 2015 Video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to ResearchGate and Open Access Button)
Research Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Productivity
0 0%
100% 100
Education
81 81%
19% 19
Information Organization
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, ResearchGate should be more popular than Open Access Button. It has been mentiond 37 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

ResearchGate mentions (37)

  • Looking for an Article - Social Representations
    I managed to download it from researchgate.net. Send me a DM if you want me to send you the PDF. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Numismatic reference works
    Academia.edu, researchgate.net, surprising amount of stuff out there. Hopefully you have. A library or institution to help you gain access if PDF not freely available. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Proof of life on Mars?
    Also, their assertions about publications are kinda hinky. I note that the "published articles" they cite are all links to researchgate.net rather than the actual journals, and the one DOI I tried didn't work, for a paper supposedly published in January. Google Scholar also has no record of that paper (Fossils on Mars? A “Cambrian Explosion” and “Burgess Shale” in Gale Crater?) other than the researchgate link. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Less known cause of RLS - my personal story
    So I looked around and pubmed didn't offer anything interesting though I found something on researchgate.net. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Research
    Check out researchgate.net. Madami dun and mostly free to access. Source: about 2 years ago
View more

Open Access Button mentions (10)

  • ‘Too greedy’: mass walkout at global science journal over ‘unethical’ fees - Entire board resigns over actions of academic publisher whose profit margins outstrip even Google and Amazon
    Try instead openaccessbutton.org or e-mail authors directly. Source: about 2 years ago
  • is there anyway I can avoid paying 50$ for research papers?
    You may also want to check out the Open Access Button. https://openaccessbutton.org/. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Why do Chinese/Asian wheat noodles taste/feel different than Italian/European wheat pasta?
    There are browser add-ons that can help with the same, such as the OA button or Unpaywall, though Google Scholar is slightly better (for now) given that they cast a wider net. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Sci-Hub Scholar - Firefox Extension Update v1.2.0
    I've seen some other Sci-Hub extensions, most notably https://openaccessbutton.org/. However most of these require you to go to the article page, then click the extension's button to finally be redirected. I thought I could do better. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Best way for someone unafilliated with a university to get access to a swath of academic journals (in this case medicine/neurology)?
    Have you tried open access button for individual articles? It's not perfect and can be really hit-or-miss, but if there's a (legal!) free version out there, it's pretty good at finding it. Source: about 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing ResearchGate and Open Access Button, you can also consider the following products

Zotero - Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share research.

Unpaywall - Legally read research papers behind paywalls.

Google Scholar - Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text of scholarly...

filtr.pub - Find high-quality AI research easily

Mendeley - Easily organize your papers, read & annotate your PDFs, collaborate in private or open groups, and securely access your research from everywhere.

SCI-HUB - It provides mass and public access to tens of millions of research papers