Higher education 🇩🇪 Berlin, Germany Since 2008 4.8 · 15K ratings

ResearchGate

A free network where researchers share papers and request full texts.

Visit researchgate.net Try ResearchGate free All companies
researchers in the network, according to ResearchGate
25M+
countries where members come from
190+
average monthly unique visitors, SimilarWeb data cited by ResearchGate, January 2023
49M+
on the App Store, US, 15,057 ratings
4.8

About ResearchGate

ResearchGate is a Berlin company that runs a professional network for scientists at researchgate.net. More than 25 million researchers from over 190 countries use it to share papers, request full texts from authors, ask questions and follow their field. An account is free, and ResearchGate asks new members to sign up with an institutional email address. The company earns money from advertising, job posts and Journal Home partnerships with publishers. Ijad Madisch, Sören Hofmayer and Horst Fickenscher founded it in 2008, and investors include Benchmark, Founders Fund, Bill Gates and the Wellcome Trust.

ResearchGate is a social network for people who do research. Members build a profile, add their publications, preprints and datasets, and see who reads, recommends and cites them. Readers search papers by title, author or DOI, follow researchers and ask questions in Q&A. Publication pages, jobs and questions open without an account.

Virologist Ijad Madisch, physician Sören Hofmayer and computer scientist Horst Fickenscher started ResearchGate in Boston in 2008 and moved it to Berlin shortly afterwards, according to Wikipedia. Benchmark led the first round in 2010 and Founders Fund the second in 2012. Bill Gates and Tenaya Capital invested $35 million in 2013, and a $52.6 million round from the Wellcome Trust, Goldman Sachs Investment Partners and others closed in November 2015. Madisch and Hofmayer are the managing directors of ResearchGate GmbH.

Researchers use ResearchGate for free. The company sells native and display ads, job posts and Candidate Search to employers, and Journal Home to publishers. Through Journal Home, publishers send the version of record to ResearchGate. Members with an institutional subscription read it in full there, and other readers see the abstract, figures and first page. In 2023 ResearchGate settled its copyright lawsuits with the American Chemical Society and Elsevier.

History

  1. 2008 Ijad Madisch, Sören Hofmayer and Horst Fickenscher launch ResearchGate in May. The company starts in Boston and moves to Berlin shortly afterwards.
  2. 2010 Benchmark leads the first funding round.
  3. 2012 Founders Fund leads the second round, announced in February. ResearchGate starts publishing the RG Score.
  4. 2013 Raises a $35 million Series C from Bill Gates and Tenaya Capital in June, with 2.8 million members in 131 countries.
  5. 2017 Announces in February a $52.6 million round that closed in November 2015, with 12 million scientists on the network. ACS and Elsevier sue ResearchGate in the US over 50 uploaded papers.
  6. 2018 Reaches an article-sharing agreement with Springer Nature, Cambridge University Press and Thieme. Releases the iPhone app on 27 May.
  7. 2022 Explains on 29 March why it removes the RG Score after July 2022. The Research Interest Score stays.
  8. 2023 Sage syndicates 47,000 articles from 48 open access journals in May. On 15 September ResearchGate, ACS and Elsevier settle their lawsuits in Germany and the US.
  9. 2026 Signs Journal Home partnerships with ASTM International in July, Mohr Siebeck in August and PNAS on 1 October.
  10. 2026 PLOS expands its Journal Home partnership to new journals from launch on 8 October.

ResearchGate funding and investors

$87.6 million disclosed raised in disclosed rounds
  1. 2010
    Series A Amount not disclosed

    Lead: Benchmark Benchmark

    Source: Wikipedia
  2. February 2012
    Series B Amount not disclosed

    Lead: Founders Fund Founders Fund

    Source: Wikipedia
  3. June 2013
    Series C $35 million

    Bill GatesTenaya CapitalDragoneer Investment GroupThrive Capital

    Source: TechCrunch
  4. November 2015
    Funding round, announced February 2017 $52.6 million

    Wellcome TrustGoldman Sachs Investment PartnersFour Rivers GroupAshton KutcherGroupe ArnaultXavier NielBill GatesTenaya CapitalBenchmarkFounders Fund

    Source: Tech.eu

Sum of the two rounds with public amounts: the $35 million Series C in 2013 and the $52.6 million round that closed in November 2015 and was announced in February 2017. The amounts of the 2010 and 2012 rounds were not disclosed. TechCrunch notes that Bill Gates invested from his personal account.

Careers

researchgate.jobs.personio.de
1Berlin
1 open roles on 15 October 2026
  • Advertising operations1

How ResearchGate works

researchers in the network
25M+
countries
190+
between affiliation checks for the Verified Badge
6 months
  • Researcher profile
  • Publication pages with DOI search
  • Full-text requests
  • Private copies on request
  • Preprints
  • Datasets
  • ResearchGate DOIs
  • Q&A
  • Research Interest Score
  • h-index and citations
  • Messages
  • Job board
  • Verified Badge
  • Labs

Products

  • Profile and network Members add publications, preprints and datasets to a profile, follow researchers and see who reads, recommends and cites their work. A Verified Badge shows a confirmed institutional affiliation. What is ResearchGate
  • Full-text requests When a paper has no public full text, the reader clicks Request full-text and ResearchGate sends the request to the authors on the network. Authors share it publicly, send a private copy or decline. How to request
  • Q&A Members ask research questions, answer others and follow questions in their field. Questions open without an account. What is Q&A
  • ResearchGate app Free apps for iPhone and Android with the home feed, stats, messages and push notifications. Adding publications and editing the profile work only on the web. App Store
  • Stats and Research Interest Score Reads, recommendations and citations add up to the Research Interest Score: 0.05 for a summary read, 0.15 for a full-text read, 0.25 for a recommendation and 0.5 for a citation. Self-citations and reads by co-authors do not count. How it is calculated
  • ResearchGate DOIs Free DOIs in the 10.13140/RG format for unpublished work with a public full text, such as theses, preprints and datasets. Generate a DOI
  • Journal Home Publishers send the version of record to ResearchGate, get a journal profile and see reader stats. Open access papers are free to read, and subscription papers open for entitled members. For publishers

How much is ResearchGate?

  • Researcher $0/mo Free, Profile, uploads, full-text requests, Q&A, stats
  • Bronze Price on request 40 job posts, 2 Candidate Search seats, institution page
  • Silver Price on request 80 job posts, 3 Candidate Search seats, institution page
  • Gold Price on request 110 job posts, 5 sponsored job posts, 5 Candidate Search seats
  • Enterprise Price on request Unlimited job posts, 10 sponsored job posts, 10 Candidate Search seats

Is ResearchGate free?

A ResearchGate account is free for researchers, and membership is open to active researchers. Reading publication pages, jobs and questions works without an account. ResearchGate pays for the free network with advertising, recruitment services and publisher partnerships.

Checked on 15 October 2026. ResearchGate publishes no prices. Researcher accounts are free. Recruitment packages for employers are sold through sales, and the scientific-recruitment page lists what each package includes.

How to delete a ResearchGate account

Help Center
  • researchgate.net ↗
    1. Log in and open Account settings
    2. Scroll to the bottom and click Delete account, then Continue
    3. Enter your password and click Delete account
  • Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone.
  • The old profile URL redirects to the researcher index. Search engines can show the profile for some time.
  • A deleted member can sign up again with Join for free.

Refund rules

No access to the account
If you cannot log in, reset the password or recall the email, send a deletion request through the contact form.

From the ResearchGate Help Center, checked on 15 October 2026.

ResearchGate for employers and publishers

Scientific recruitment
  • 01Job posts and Candidate Search, a sourcing tool that lets employers message researchers in their ResearchGate inbox.
  • 02Recruitment packages from Bronze with 40 job posts to Enterprise with unlimited job posts.
  • 03Native, display and content ads in home feeds and next to research.
  • 04Journal Home for publishers: journal profiles, automatic uploads of the version of record and reader stats.

Prices on request through sales, checked on 15 October 2026. ResearchGate says more than 1,500 companies and institutions have promoted brands and job posts on the platform..

Ratings

2.1Trustpilot · Bad 18 reviews · profile not claimed by the company

App details, App Store US

Current version
1.4.0, released 23 June 2026
First release on iOS
27 May 2018
Requires
iOS 16.0 or later
Size
32 MB
Age rating
12+ on the App Store, Teen on Google Play
App Store categories
Social Networking, Education
App interface languages
English
Google Play
1M+ downloads, contains ads, account and age 18+ required
Price
Free

Is ResearchGate worth it?

What users like

What users criticise

What users write in reviews, not our rating. A ResearchGate account is free, and Trustpilot has only 18 reviews against more than 25 million members.

ResearchGate reviews

  • Great network for keeping in touch with…
    “Great network for keeping in touch with researchers”
    Iskander Gazizov · 9 September 2024 · App Store
  • Ok for scientific Networking
    “Ok for scientific Networking, but with strange behaviour for statistic data like the number of reads of works/articles.”
    Frank Höger · 29 January 2026 · App Store
  • appalling customer service
    “very difficult/impossible to get set up with an account if you are independent and don’t have an organisational email address.”
    Tim Ali · 31 January 2026 · App Store
  • Quasi-useless Unfortunately
    “I tried several times to get a paper/publication. I never got any response !”
    Paul · 20 December 2024 · App Store

Latest news

  1. ResearchGate and PLOS expand Journal Home partnership to support new journals from launch
  2. ResearchGate and AVES announce Journal Home partnership for open access academic journals
  3. ResearchGate and ASTM International announce new Journal Home partnership
  4. ACS, Elsevier, and ResearchGate resolve litigation, NISO
  5. Why we’re removing the RG Score (and what’s next)
  6. ResearchGate announces funding of $52.6 million, Tech.eu

Contacts and company data

Legal entity
ResearchGate GmbH, Chausseestraße 20, 10115 Berlin, Germany
Managing directors
Dr. Ijad Madisch, Dr. Sören Hofmayer
Commercial register
Berlin, HRB 232771 B
VAT ID
DE258434568
US affiliate
ResearchGate Corporation, San Francisco

Alternatives to ResearchGate

How we built this profile

  1. Sources. Facts come from the company’s own website, press room, imprint and careers page, from Wikipedia, the App Store, Google Play and Trustpilot. Every source is listed on the page.
  2. Checks. Kinescope checked every number on 15 October 2026. Prices, ratings and job counts change, and we refresh them with each update.
  3. Our words. Descriptions are written by the Kinescope team. Quotes from reviews are marked with the author and source, and we do not rate the company ourselves.
  4. Corrections. The company can send new facts or corrections, and we update the profile.

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ResearchGate FAQ

ResearchGate is a professional network for scientists and researchers, run by ResearchGate GmbH in Berlin. More than 25 million members use it to share publications, preprints and data, request full texts from authors, ask questions in Q&A and find jobs. It was founded in 2008.

Yes. A researcher account costs nothing, and the iPhone and Android apps are free. ResearchGate earns money from advertising, job posts and recruitment packages for employers, and Journal Home partnerships with publishers.

Go to https://www.researchgate.net/login and enter your email and password, or choose Continue with Google. Any confirmed email on the account works. On a new device ResearchGate emails a 6-digit security code. If you forgot the password, click Forgot password: the reset link is valid for 30 minutes.

Go to researchgate.net, click Join for free, choose your researcher type and enter your name, institutional email and a password. Then click the link in the activation email. Without an institutional email, you can request an account through the contact form with proof of recent peer-reviewed publications or R&D work and a student or academic ID. ResearchGate does not accept hobbyists or retired researchers.

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