Is ResearchGate better than Google Scholar for researchers?

No, ResearchGate is not simply “better” than Google Scholar for researchers; they serve different purposes. Google Scholar is usually stronger for finding scholarly literature, while ResearchGate is more about sharing your work and connecting with other researchers.

Google Scholar works like a search engine that scans a huge range of academic sources. It is especially useful when you want to:

• Search quickly across many journals, conferences, and publishers
  
  

• Discover how often a paper has been cited and who cited it
  
  

• Find multiple versions of the same paper, including free PDFs when available

Because it crawls so many publishers and repositories, Google Scholar is often the first stop when you need to do a broad literature search or follow citation trails.

ResearchGate, on the other hand, is more like a social platform for academics. It is helpful when you want to:

• Upload and showcase your own publications or preprints
  
  

• Follow other researchers and see what they are working on
  
  

• Request a copy of a paper directly from the author if you cannot access it through your library
  
  

• Track reads, recommendations, and some basic engagement metrics on your work

However, ResearchGate does not index the academic literature as comprehensively as Google Scholar, and not every researcher uses it actively. For systematic searching or building a literature review, Scholar and subject specific databases are usually more reliable.

A lot of researchers use both:

• Start with Google Scholar (and proper databases) for serious literature searching.
  
  

• Use ResearchGate to share your own work, connect with others in your field, and sometimes get access to PDFs via author uploads.

So, ResearchGate is not “better” than Google Scholar overall. Google Scholar is generally stronger as a discovery tool, while ResearchGate is more useful as a networking and sharing platform. Which one feels better for you depends on whether your main goal is to search for literature or to share your work and connect with other researchers.