In March 2019, Springer Nature and ResearchGate entered a unique partnership to explore new ways for researchers to share content. The goal was to combine Springer Nature’s expertise in publishing high-quality research with ResearchGate’s online platform of millions of scientists, and deliver a better experience for the communities served by both organisations.
To evaluate the success of the partnership, we carried out an author survey of nearly 700 researchers after the first phase of the pilot partnership in April 2019. Following the second pilot phase, we also conducted in-depth interviews with librarians from North America and Europe. Furthermore, we analysed usage data of the content from Springer Nature that was syndicated to ResearchGate and compared authentication data from ResearchGate with that of Springer Nature. Having now entered a long-term content sharing partnership and we're thrilled to share what we've learnt so far. This white paper informs you about:
- How the unique partnership works and its goals
- Benefits to researchers, authors, librarians and others identified so far
- Areas for further analysis, discussion, and future developments.
