TABLE OF CONTENTS

There are different strategies that you can use to get people to notice your research, and different platforms help you with different strategies. 


Strengths and weaknesses of different  repositories

  • For example, popular sites like Academia.edu and ResearchGate.net function both as a repository but also as a social networking platform. However, many journals who accept your work for publication do not allow you to upload in commercial repositories such as these, particularly since the these commercial platforms might profit off your research in potentially questionable ways. 
  • The EU-funded Zenodo platform is a beautifully structured and metadata-rich archive that qualifies as a non-commercial repository; however, it is not indexed by Google Scholar. 
  • The UPOU Repository is indexed by Google Scholar but doesn't really help you network with researchers outside your institution.

Table 1 below summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of each platform. We highlight in yellow the most important advantages of each platform.



UPOU Institutional RepositoryZenodo.orgCommercial repositories (e.g., ResearchGate, Academia.edu)
Offers a permanent unique identifier?+ Yes, but only through a Handle identifier+++ Yes, through a DOI+++ ResearchGate: Yes, through a DOI
x Academia.edu: no

Indexed by Google Scholar?

+++ Yesx No+++ Yes
Will publishers allow you to archive pre- and post-prints of your work?

+ Most of the time, but check with your publisher+ Most of the time, but check with your publisherx Probably not, but check with your publisher
Allows you to network with researchers in your field and similar fields?

x No+ Somewhat+++ Yes
Supports uploading and visualizing datasets? 

+ To a limited extent+++ Yes + ResearchGate: yes
xAcademia.edu: no
File size limits+ 50 Mb (contact us if you need more space)+++ 50 Gb+ ResearchGate: 512MB
Provides usage metrics?++ Extensive public engagement metrics via PlumX and Altmetric, but currently doesn't provide downloads and views.

++ Provides metrics on downloads and views, but no citation metrics or other research engagement metrics. (The exact opposite of the UPOU Repository.)++ Downloads and views plus basic citation metrics (not as comprehensive as PlumX and Altmetric)
Allows research repository manager to organize outputs for maximum impact?

+++ Extensively+ Minimally+ Minimally
Metadata support and richness
++ Moderate but very flexible (with some backend development work)

++ Constrained but very comprehensive set of metadata fields + Constrained, with modest range of metadata types

Table 1. Strengths and weaknesses of research archiving platforms


We recommend that you use a range of strategies to get people to notice your work and the institution you belong to, as visually summarized in Figure 1 below.


Figure 1. How different research archiving platforms should be used to achieve different purposes 


But if commercial repositories are problematic, then why use them at all?

While some have argued that you should not use commercial repositories (and particularly Academia.edu) at all, platforms like ResearchGate and Academia (and, to a limited extent, Zenodo) are useful places to learn about what researchers in your discipline are doing. These platforms also provide you interesting ways to interact with the research community. They're just not the best place to archive fulltext versions of your work. 


What you could do is to upload only previews of your work full preprints on ResearchGate and Academia, and provide a link to where users can legally download fulltext of the your work. (See this example and the screenshot below for how you might do this.)




UPOU's parallel repository on Zenodo: The UPOU Zenodo Community

UPOU maintains a community on Zenodo (https://zenodo.org/communities/upou) that functions as a parallel repository that mirrors the contents of the UPOU Repository because of the benefits provided by Zenodo described in the table above. Uploading your work in Zenodo is also the recommended way to secure a DOI for your work if it does not already have one.


How do I track how many people have read or cited my work?

There are three ways you can track how many people have read or cited your work.


Using the PlumX metrics tracker on UPLOAD
Using the Altmetric metrics tracker on UPLOAD
Using the download statistics on Zenodo

 

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