Referred to as Facebook for scientists, ResearchGate (http://www.researchgate.net/) is a new way for scientists to communicate. Created by Ijad Madisch, this resource allows scientists to create profile pages, comment, join groups, find job listings, link and follow other scientists and pose and answer scientific questions. Many open access articles are also shared within this resource. It is a great place to stay on top of research in a specific topic area.
In 2011, over 1.5 million connections were made between experts on a variety of fields from medicine to physics to biology to engineering to psychology to religious studies to economics to computer science and more. It helps people connect worldwide on like subject areas and in many cases they end up collaborating on projects and papers. To read more about ResearchGate and the idea of looking at the scientific process in a new light visit their website and also read Tomas Lin’s article in the New York Times “Cracking Open the Scientific Process” published on January 16, 2012.
