We ran a session for staff this week “Online Networking for Academics” where we discussed the options for building an online presence and a network of contacts. Key sites that were discussed include LinkedIn, Academia.edu and ResearchGate. We have our guide which covers the main pros and cons of each but there have also been some useful recent articles focussed on Academia.edu and LinkedIn:
- “Sharing is a way of life for millions on Academia.edu” from THE
- “How to become an academic networking pro on LinkedIn” from the ImpactStory blog
It is interesting to see how the numbers of Swansea University members continue to grow on Academia.edu (currently 1831) and ResearchGate (currently 1419). In our session this week there were concerns about copyright and uploading PDFs of publications. Whilst the advice on Academia.edu remains extremely minimalist and misleading, it is heartening that ResearchGate now provides a means to check copyright per journal title and directs you to the Sherpa Romeo database. We do have our guide to “Sharing PDFs” – the University’s own repository Cronfa is more likely to meet copyright restrictions of publishers who normally do not permit sharing on commercial sites (i.e. Academia.edu and ResearchGate). Your library subject teams are happy to help check compliance to make your publications open access where possible. Contact us at library@swansea.ac.uk.
RESEARCH NEWS from Swansea University Library 