Proving that you’re an expert at something can be difficult, just as it’s tricky to find a pro for a specialized task. ResearchGate made both easier with a new feature, Endorsements.

Find specialists and display your scientific expertise

Be endorsed: It’s a simple way to find out who’s the specialist for every job at hand, and to display your scientific expertise. List your research skills on your profile and let your followers and co-authors endorse them.

And endorse: Why not return the favor? Endorsements are a way to show appreciation, so if you can vouch for a researcher’s expertise, give it a click! You know a lot about your research partners. That’s why you can add a skill to their profile if you notice that it’s missing. And if they approve, they will automatically be endorsed by you.

Endorsements will make it easier for you to find and connect to the expert you’re looking for: for collaboration, online peer-review and more.

The next time you are applying for a job or a grant, your profile will be full of references certifying your expertise in anything from antibody testing to zinc extraction.

Go and endorse!

Something unclear? Not working? Just shoot us a mail, we’d appreciate it!

Sometimes, something very small can make all the difference. A few figures, a dataset or protocol, attached to a private message, for example, might be all you need to move forward in your research.               

And because your research is all we have in mind here at ResearchGate, we’ve developed a new tool to help you out: you can now add attachments to the private messages you send to your peers. No email exchange necessary – everything stays at hand and in one place.

Just drag and drop or select your files from your computer to attach them to your message.

Now let the messaging begin!

Noticed a glitch? Please let us know. As always, we appreciate your feedback and look forward to hearing from you

It’s been an exciting year here at the ResearchGate HQ, and an even more exciting year in science! One important discovery and event followed the next, and all were wildly discussed in the ResearchGate community.

When physicists at CERN announced that they’d finally found the elusive Higgs boson, scientists on ResearchGate were already thinking ahead, asking themselves: “what’s next in particle physics?” While politicians at Rio+20 were drafting “The Future we want”, researchers on the network discussed the hands-on use of technology for effective bio conservation.

Take a look at some of the most interesting discussions on ResearchGate about science stories that made the news in 2012:

1. The discovery of the Higgs boson

We were thrilled and moved at the same time here the ResearchGate HG on July 4th as we watched renowned physicists swipe away a tear or two during the announcement that after a four century long hunt the elusive Higgs particle had finally been found (with a very, very high likelihood). And we were also surprised: most of us were still trying grasp what this mysterious particle was, as the ResearchGate community was already discussing what this finding meant in terms of gravity, how the Standard Model (the theory of how matter and energy work together) may be completed and even what the next realistic major target in particle physics might be

2. Rio+20 and key technologies in bio conservation

As the United Nations conference on Sustainable development, Rio+20, was wrapping up in late June, William Sutherland, Miriam Rothschild Professor of Conservation Biology at Cambridge University, was preparing for a workshop he was about to hold at his university. He posted a question on ResearchGate, asking the scientific community what technologies they wanted to see being used for bio conservation. In the following hours William got more than 30 qualified and precise responses, suggesting for example how low-cost hard- and open source software could be used in the field. William took these answers and used them as the basis for a memo he was drafting, together with 70+ attendees at a workshop in Cambridge. This memo was published on the workshop’s website.

3. The Nobel Prizes

When the leaves turn brown and the last warm days are long gone, the only thing that can consolidate us here at ResearchGate is that Nobel Prize season is about to start! This year the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Sir John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka "for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent." That was great fodder for the ResearchGate’s stem cell experts. They asked: “What’s next in Stem Cell biology?” Most agreed that it would have something to do with tissue regeneration and reparation. Congrats were in order for two of our ResearchGate members, Robert J. Lefkowitz and Brian K. Kobilka, who were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors."

What was your ResearchGate story of 2012? We’d love to hear from you.

We wish you happy holidays and a wonderful new year with many more discoveries and breakthroughs!

Here at ResearchGate, we know your research isn't limited to the articles you've published. Think of all the datasets and negative results that never make the final cut – we don’t think this non-peer-reviewed work should sit and gather dust on your desk.

Our new publishing feature lets you publish anything, whether it’s been through the peer-review process or not. Here’s how it works.

How do I publish?

Think of your profile as your own personal publishing platform. All you have to do is pick what type of research you want to publish, upload the file, and then fill out the details. It couldn't be simpler.



Each file will be given its own page so that other researchers can cite it and provide you with feedback on it.



What can I publish?

This is the best bit: you can publish anything you like. Here’s what other researchers have published so far:

Go to your profile, publish, and start building reputation based on your entire research output.

This week was full of events for us here at ResearchGate HQ. Today Ijad and Matt Cohler, our awesome investor from Benchmark Capital, met with Klaus Wowereit, the mayor of Berlin. Fun times!

We spoke about why we opened up shop in the German capital and how Berlin can attract even more world-changing entrepreneurs and investors. Mayor Wowereit is enthusiastic about the startup scene and has a lot of ideas to keep it developing.

We’re sure that we made the right decision when we moved to Berlin, and we hope that others will follow suit!

Klaus Wowereit, Ijad Madisch and Matt Cohler. Credit: Laura Trumpp.

Here at ResearchGate HQ, we’ve been hard at work updating the RG Score.

What’s new?

We designed and built the RG Score to adapt to your needs. Our recently updated algorithm now takes a whole lot more data into account when considering the weight of your peer-reviewed publications. We think this update will provide you with an even more comprehensive way to build, measure, and leverage your scientific reputation.

How does it work?

Contributions: First it’s up to you to decide what to contribute to the research community. Whether it’s your questions and answers in Topics, a published paper you add to your profile, or the negative results and raw data you upload, anything you contribute can count towards your RG Score.

Interactions: Then it’s up to the community: not only does our algorithm look at how your peers receive and evaluate your contributions, it also looks at who these peers are. This means that the higher the scores of the researchers who interact with your work, the more your own score will increase. Your peer-reviewed research is then factored in to your score to reflect your current standing within the wider scientific community.

Reputation: With the RG Score, reputation is passed from researcher to researcher, allowing you to build and leverage your reputation based on all of your research, not just the work you’ve published.  

And there’s more to come. The RG Score is constantly evolving. Here’s what we’re working on next:

• You’ll soon be able to see how and where your publications have been cited.

• We’re working on ways to give you more options when it comes to evaluating your peers’ contributions.

• We’re adapting the RG Score to include a lot more discipline-specific data.

• We’re launching a new way for you to provide us with feedback. Expect to see this soon.

We’d like to thank you for all the feedback you’ve given us so far. Please keep your questions and comments coming.

Go to your RG Score

We’re in the middle of a wonderfully exciting week here at ResearchGate HQ. Today we happily announced the take-over of ScholarZ, a German professional network and knowledge management platform.

Daniel, CEO of ScholarZ, and Ijad, ourCEO and co-founder, are equally delighted about the news. “The take-over by ResearchGate is a fantastic new start, for us and for our users,” Daniel says. Ijad is thrilled that ScholarZ users are finding a new home on ResearchGate: “Scholarz.net users are a great addition to the ResearchGate community.”

Please welcome all ScholarZ members to ResearchGate along with us! On to even more adventures, innovations and discoveries!

Scholarz.net will discontinue its services in January.

Read more here...

Today’s a big day at ResearchGate HQ in Berlin. The Harvard Clubs of Germany awarded us an important German entrepreneurs’ prize: the “Deutscher Unternehmer Preis” 2012 in the category “Startup”.

We’re extremely excited to share this with you, our users, and of course the ResearchGate team. This prize encourages us to go forward and continue changing the world of science.

Thank you for being part of this incredible journey!

Here's Ijad receiving the award in Frankfurt last night.