I think ResearchGate registration is not restricted to true academics. Although I did not encounter a fake account, I found fake questions and fake publications aimed only at increasing the reading rate and then increasing the score. But they should know that increasing the score depends on strong, real publications

Peter, of course, I cannot list the possible candidates that I have detected, by chance, because some of them may in fact be valid. However, in some cases, profiles disappear when their name hyperlink is clicked, in other cases, the information about their names does not match other public records such as Google, or cannot be found elsewhere, and in other cases yet potentially fictitious names are used, I sense, to troll. So, I have not yet tested how easy it is to create a "fake" profile on RG, but I think this hypothesis needs to be tested. Regarding the issue of practitioners, I suspect that this characterization might be debatable, because anyone who has any link to academics, directly or tangential, could be considered a valid RG account holder. But I do agree with your last statement that a robust RG that is fortified by constructive criticism by RG users, such as us, would lead to a more formidable platform that breeds confidence. After all, a poorly regulated platform, like a poorly regulated journal, also gives a bad image to its users/authors.

I wonder if, to some extent, my gut feeling about fake profiles who may be posting full-texts of copyrighted material, may have some validity. I find it fascinating, i.e., the timing, that on the same day that I posted my question at RG that STM issued a legal "notice" to RG:

https://www.elsevier.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/509068/STM_letter_ResearchGate.20170916.pdf

Hat-tip (Bianca Kramer):

https://twitter.com/MsPhelps/status/909051476500189184

I'd like to give one example:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Daqqn_Ing

This "individual" ( a troll?) has been requesting copies of papers of mine (about 10 in total), all on plant science, even though this "person" is a chemical engineer, without any publishing record. What would motivate an individual with this potentially false name, or a potentially false institution, or RG profile, to be making such a voluminous request? Academic malice, or otherwise?

I think ResearchGate registration is not restricted to true academics. Although I did not encounter a fake account, I found fake questions and fake publications aimed only at increasing the reading rate and then increasing the score. But they should know that increasing the score depends on strong, real publications

Gomaa, I think that your first sentence is key: "I think ResearchGate registration is not restricted to true academics"

How easy is it to become a RG account holder? How easy is it to fake an identity? How easy is it to hijack the identity of a deceased researcher? What parameters are needed to start a RG account? In my case, I remember that a fake account had been started at RG in my name, without my knowledge and without my permission! I was associated, back in 2015, with an Iranian University. That fraudulent representation of my identity sparked my initial concerns about RG, and I was then forced to register at RG and claim that account and clean it up, remove all false information and replace it with as accurate information as possible. As RG account holders and as active members of the RG platform, we should be concerned about these issues because if there is any fraud or shenanigans taking place, then it affects all of us negatively.

A curious development:

https://twitter.com/Richvn/status/923548146894102529

ResearchGate is updating its privacy and terms of service -- with much lengthier explanations about responsibilities of users (1/2)

https://twitter.com/Richvn/status/923548641205325830

ResearchGate users must now warrant that personal info. they provide is accurate and are "obliged" to update it when it changes, (!) (2/2)

Yes I have also seen what seems to be fake profiles, I tried to report a weird profile to RG, but never got an answer. They seem to be triying to lead you to publish in predatory journals.

I found one,while looking for articles of my species of interest, and found a weird one, the publication had like no quality and was very suspicious.

So, after I downloaded his article, he wrote me this message: " Hi, how are you. I can see your interest in shellfish. I will be glad if we can collaborate and engage in research together. Will you be interested to join and write an article together, then we will publish it. " with his email.

I replied because, as far as I know, the species (Cardisoma guanhumi) is not even distributed there, and I asked him about that, and he replied with this:

" , How are you, sorry for relying late. I would like to develop a review paper on the distribution and varieties of shelfishes in Nigeria and your country. it will be a new research and a novel one. let me know if you are interested. so we can start "

Then I started looking through his publications, somehow he has publications in a wide variaty of subjects (genetics included). I send one of those to a friend that works with genetics, and he told me that it was a known predatory journal.

So...

Today I found another weird article that belonged to a suspicios account.

Luisa, thank you for sharing this. I also contacted RG 2 days ago with a query, and am now waiting to see how they respond.

I am curious, have they replied yet?

Recently the fake Id contacted me again, asking if I was still interested in doing a collaboration.

Silence from all parties. That, to me, indicates that there is a problem.

interesting issue; ). I did not even notice the problem of fake IDs in RG, yet it has been a real problem in some other social networks

I wonder if anybody could offer comment about this profile, just out of curiosity because it's not every day that we are contacted by Dr. Spock. Is this an extension of the Star Trek sting?

Gavin Walter Dobson

I also noticed a fake-Identity. Almost one month ago I joined RG and found this guy: Peter Marek claiming to be the author of my publications (all of his contributions were mine). Additionally he claims to be a member of my previous supervisors lab, although this lab is still at the KIT in Karlsruhe and not at the TU-Dortmund. I reported this fake-account to RG on Aug. 03. 2018 and imediatly got a response, that his ID will be reviewed, and I should be patient, because this manual process will take a while. Today I reported it again. Let's see when it will be deleted.

Already the next day after my second report to RG my publications were released from my namesake. However, his profile is still showing, that he belongs to my former Lab of Horst Hahn, what is not true.

Peter, I wonder if this is fake information, or simply outdated information. Is there no institutional webpage against which this could be independently verified? Also, is this simply not a case of a researcher with the same name as you, as opposed to a "fake ID"?

Arif, the suggestion you are making is extremely serious. Can you support your claim or belief with concrete evidence? Why would RG populate its platform with fake identities? This doesn't seem to make any academic or business sense. If you could expand on your ideas, I and surely other RG members would be grateful and interested to listen and learn.

Kay, the insight is greatly appreciated. However, many academics also hold free emails addresses such as yahoo, gmail, reddiff, etc. Are you suggesting that they cannot register now?

Interesting. Is there any possible that the fake IDs may be generated automatically?

Interesting discussion

I work at a teaching focused university. Therefore, one would not expect many students (or even many of the professors) to have profiles on RG. However, there are many users on ResearchGate from my school. These profiles tend to follow far more profiles than they have followers of their own. These fake profiles tend to have no (or one) research item(s) and no posts. The profile photos used for the profiles can be easily be found in news releases or from the university websites. Lastly, I've noticed several profiles with photos of the wrong person. I reported this problem to RG, but their response indicated they don't care about all the fake profiles.

Richard A Moy you are right. I know one who tried to open a fake profile to get/add recommendations in answer/question thread for increasing RG score. It is really funny matter. If people can add recommendation can increase RG score rapidly. So far, this type of people create fake accounts. If that fake people has 200 answers (for example) in RG and if they add recommendation by own in those answers by using fake account they will find about 3-4 added RG score next week.

How funny!

Mohammod Hossain, please indicate the ID of the fake RG account to substantiate your claim.

Jaime A. Teixeira da Silva thank you for your concern. In my comment, I wanted to say that one of my colleagues tried to open a fake account in front of me but I forbade him not to do so. He explained why he was trying to open a fake account. After my request he did not open fake account.

Sorry for any inconvenience.