DOI: 10.3886/e105020v1
title: Researchers’ Article Sharing through ResearchGate

description: The purpose of this research is to investigate the factors influencing researchers’ article
sharing through ResearchGate. The researchers in biological sciences and related
disciplines in U.S. academic institutions were reflected as the target
population for this study. The Community of Science (COS) scholar database
provided by ProQuest Pivot was used to identify the sampling population for the
online survey. In order to conduct a survey, we randomly selected
a total of 3,247 researchers from the biological sciences, whom are categorized
by the COS scholar database; the potential survey participants include faculty
members, researchers, and a small number of graduate student researchers in U.S.
academic institutions.
description: No weight method was used.
description: Response Rates: A total of 425 initial responses (i.e., partial and full responses) including both institutional repository survey participants (122 initial responses) and ResearchGate survey participants (303 initial responses) were received. Among those 425 initial responses, any responses which have more than 20% of missing values for each survey were removed. This leads to a total of 373 valid responses including both the institutional repository survey (109 valid responses) and ResearchGate survey (264 valid responses) (response rate: 14.73%=373/2,532).
description: Presence of Common Scales: This study used 5-point Likert scales
ranging from “Strongly Disagree”, “Disagree”, “Neither Disagree nor Agree”, “Agree”,
and “Strongly Agree”, and all the research constructs were measured with three items.
description: web-based survey~~The survey was originally disseminated to 3,247
potential participants through an online survey management software, Qualtrics.com.
The first message was sent to the potential survey participants on November
7th, 2016. Three reminders were also sent on November 21st and December 19th,
2016, and January 31st, 2017. The survey was closed on February 15th, 2017. A
total of 3,247 emails were sent initially, however, 715 emails were returned
due to invalid emails and spam filters. Therefore, the survey messages were
delivered to only 2,532 potential survey participants. Any survey participants
who are aware of ResearchGate are guided to participate in the survey, and the
other participants who are aware of institutional repositories are guided to
take the survey about institutional repositories. A total of 425 initial
responses (i.e., partial and full responses) including both institutional
repository survey participants (122 initial responses) and ResearchGate survey
participants (303 initial responses) were received. Among those 425 initial
responses, any responses which have more than 20% of missing values for each
survey were removed. This leads to a total of 373 valid responses including
both the institutional repository survey (109 valid responses) and ResearchGate
survey (264 valid responses) (response rate: 14.73%=373/2,532). Among 373 valid
responses, there were a total of 264 valid responses received for the
ResearchGate survey. Therefore, a total of 264 valid responses from biological
scientists and any scientists from biological sciences-related disciplines were
considered for the final data analysis.
description: Biological scientists in U.S. academic institutions in late 2016 and early 2017Smallest Geographic Unit: U.S.
description: The survey was originally disseminated to 3,247 potential participants through an online survey management software, Qualtrics.com. A total of 3,247 emails were sent initially, however, 715 emails were returned due to invalid emails and spam filters. Therefore, the survey messages were delivered to only 2,532 potential survey participants.