The idea of sharing knowledge and personal research through a scientific online platform seams perfect to me. (not at all unethical...) After all, isn't communication one of the main tasks of an honest scientific researcher ???

My beautiful country, Portugal, is small and far from the rest of Europe. As an Anatomist, I find that my research, although fundamental, as a basic science in Medicine, still reaches a rather restricted audience... In this sense, the chance to reach wider inter nation audiences to communicate my work online, is very important. I am thankful to RG for this chance to reach and communicate...

I wouldn't worry much for the number of citations to my work. But I do care to communicate as widely as possible, worldwide, when I believe my research can be useful.

Best wishes, Maria

Dear Naveed

It is a difficult question since you can do nothing

Citations entirely depend on the person reading your paper and finding it interesting and citing it in the reference section on is/her own paper.

@Nolberto Munier

Thanks for your comments and You are right sir. I agree with you. what do you think about self-citation? is it ethical?

Self-citation is OK but doesn't reflect the quality of your journal. If you want to increase citation of paper - engage in an extensive literature survey and always tend to close research gap in each of your research work. Also, publish in high-ranking journals.

@Chinedu Pascal Ezenkwu

Thanks for your comment. You are right that we must find some novelty and research gap in our paper.

Simply by publishing your work in journals of international fame. 

@Arvind Singh

is only an international fame journal is enough? or should we focus on Thomson Reuters Journals?

@Chalamalla Srinivas

Dear Sir! Thank you so much for your detailed answer.

when a work is cited more, it means there is a offshoot of various project works in the same line. Citations happen only with those who are following and working on similar projects; and by the same researcher when there is a connectivity to earlier projects and results.

Dear Naveed,

concerning Krishnan's answer above. He is absolutely right and brings it on the point. This also means you can accelerate your recognition when using RG presenting your work and activities. You also should be active in asking questions, in answering and in recommending good contributions.

With best regards

Michael

> ... researchers think that number, quality and citation does not matter.

No, it does matter. A good doctor can make a judgment about a patient health just by looking at one's hands nails. Similarly, a number and quality of citations for one's paper can provide important information to assess a paper.

>What can be some successful strategies to increase the number of citations?

The best strategy is to produce excellent papers as content and style are concerned.

Dear Naveed,

You may increase the number of citations of your papers by

a). circulating your papers to increased number of researchers,

b). citing your own papers in your follow-up publications,

c). uploading your papers on portals like ResearchGate, and

d) sending copies of your research papers to the researchers/ group of researchers who are engaged in similar problem areas/fields.

The output of a researcher, to a larger extent, is measured by the number of citations accrued to his/her publications. Citation remains an indicator of the number of times a research's paper is read and the number of other researchers in the field that access the paper. To be able to achieve this, a research must publish papers of a high quality that meets international standards. Again, the papers must be published in incredible and high impact destinations. Notwithstanding, how interesting the area of paper is may also count. Overall, being able to produce a top notch paper is the surest way to count your citations.

Dear Naveed

I agree with all the comments aforementioned.

I also think that even when RG, for now at least, is not considered in Scopus database or in other citation institutions, it has a larger value because it makes aware thousands of people that could be  interested in your subject. On the other hand it allows discussion, something that these agencies don't

I think that ones of the best ways are:

1. Share your paper around your colleagues including graduate students

2. Make your paper available on the web

@Krishnan Umachandran

You are right Sir!. It is more helpful to collaborate with the similar research groups and introduce our research to other.

your paper may be online to all so you need others to refer it , I think if it is on ISI journals then you get more citations 

@Michael Heine

Thanks for your comments.

@Michael Heine @Krishnan Umachandran

I agree with idea of both of you professors. Although, RG is a great plate form to introduce your research but is it ethical to introduce your research by sharing your research through private message?

@Len Leonid Mizrah

Thanks for your specific answer and address the right issue. I agree with you. Is collaboration with some prominent researcher in an area is a key to write an excellent paper?

@Dilip Kumar Kundu

Dear Sir! I appreciate your experience in research and agree with your answer.

Can you please recommend me some other databases like ResearchGate to share our research?

@Razak Mohammed Gyasi

I am strongly agree with you that producing a top notch paper is the surest way to count our citations.

@Nolberto Munier 

Sir! once again, thanks for your valuable comments. So kind of you.

Can you please recommend me some other databases like ResearchGate to share our research?

@Albert Kaboré

Thanks for you feedback dear.

Marketing of your research articles. Apart from Reserachgate there are various other platforms where you can promote your research work. The more visibility you give to your research articles the more your peers will be able to know about your work, hence subsequent citation. Also, you should try to publish with some open access research journals. OA publications are more visible to readers hence increases the chances for greater citation.  

Ramesh Pandita please can you send the link where one can promote ones research work.

Thank you

@Ramesh Pandita

you have given Impressive view about increasing number of citation.Especially, you have used a term"Marketing" of papers.I liked this idea to consider paper as a product and convince readers to read it.

No chance, Arvind Ji. Just read on the internet that academic writing is the least referred to type of writing. bad days ahead for all of us!

@Ajay Pratap

You are right Sir, these are not easy days, its tough to market your work in between researcher.

If your paper is published in open access journals, the chance for getting more citation is possible

If your paper is published in open access journals, the chance for getting more citation is possible and more readers

Naved, Thanks for these very hope-giving citations. I feel sure these shall prove very useful! Best regards, Ajay

Dear,

Good question! You already have great contributions and I especially appreciated those made by Dr. Chalamalla Srinivas.

Get your quality research published in journals of wide circulation and good standing both at national and international level. 

After that all has been said just choose your research topics and work hard as much as you can.

Regards

@Chalamalla Srinivas

Thank you once again for the detailed answer. That is really helpful.

@Osmar Antonio Bonzanini

Thank you for your appreciation. Young researchers always need appreciation from experienced researchers. 

@Surender Singh 

You are right Sir! Open access journals are the key to increase the number of citations. I agree with you

@Mohamed Hassaan

Thanks for your comments.

Hard working is necessary to write a quality paper. I agree with you.  

Dear Naveed,

you asked us 1 day above:

@Michael Heine @Krishnan Umachandran

I agree with idea of both of you professors. Although, RG is a great plate form to introduce your research but is it ethical to introduce your research by sharing your research through private message?

How do I increase the number of citations for my paper? - Page 4. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_do_I_increase_the_number_of_citations_for_my_paper/2 [accessed Apr 8, 2017].

My personal answer is:

There is no unethical aspect. I think it was the main idea of one of the founders of RG to share knowledge especially by personal contact.

With best regards

Michael

@Michael Heine

You are right Sir!. This is the main idea of RG team.

The idea of sharing knowledge and personal research through a scientific online platform seams perfect to me. (not at all unethical...) After all, isn't communication one of the main tasks of an honest scientific researcher ???

My beautiful country, Portugal, is small and far from the rest of Europe. As an Anatomist, I find that my research, although fundamental, as a basic science in Medicine, still reaches a rather restricted audience... In this sense, the chance to reach wider inter nation audiences to communicate my work online, is very important. I am thankful to RG for this chance to reach and communicate...

I wouldn't worry much for the number of citations to my work. But I do care to communicate as widely as possible, worldwide, when I believe my research can be useful.

Best wishes, Maria

Maria

I support your opinion. If citations are indeed important, for me, at least, is more important communication and interchange of ideas which is a reality thanks to RG

@Maria Bettencourt Pires

You are righy, it does not matter about citation. Interaction among researcher and transfer of learning should be more focused.

@Nolberto Munier

You are right Sir.Communication and interchange of ideas is more important which is a reality thanks to RG.

I agree with dear Maria,

It's important to share your papers with other in a scientific social web such as researchgate, academia.edu, google scholar, ORCID.. etc..

@Fikrat M Hassan

I agree with you

Many publishers do provide facilities that can help authors to increase the publicity of their papers, and this can attract citations. For example, altmetric, podcasts, etc. Also, social networking sites such as ResearchGate, Twitter, Kudos, etc. can be of help too. Using institutional repository and also sending full papers to RG member and other researchers who cannot access your paper, but want to read it can contribute to citation.

@Emeka W. Dumbili 

Thank you so much Sir for such a useful information about publicity of research.

@Goli Srinivasarao

I agree with you

Dear,

As a Researcher and Academician...Getting Citations for their Research Contribution is a motivational aspect. But come to Citations is not a easy thing...It depends on the few of the following techniques...

1. Research Discipline

2. Choose Appropriate Keywords

3. Publish in Open Access Journals

4. High-quality of Manuscript

5. Publish the Manuscript in Scopus Indexed Journals

@Prabhakar Nandru

thanks for your specific answer.You have shared a useful information.

Hahahahahah. To cite him in your future article? Interesting!

@Khaoula Hidouri

Thanks...You can cite my work related to renewable energy.

@Razak Mohammed Gyasi

RG is a plate form of collaboration. It does not mean someone will cite some irrelevant articles. It is already mentioned by senior researchers in the discussion that getting citation is not important but the interaction between researcher is most important.

Citation is  one of the indicators of the usefulness of a work to the end users. Citation of a paper is also an interraction between reseachers i.e the author and the citee. 

 hello

We have all need that our articles will be cited.

to cite an article it should  moreover be placed in researchgate and in more, you will try to answer the questions which have a direct relationship with your article by proposing it as reference….

@Sellami Mohamed Hassen

Dear, you have highlighted a good way to increase our number of citation in a ethical way. Thanks for useful comments.

Getting citation of your work is important and necessary but it all depends on the value the citee place on your paper.

But the availability of your paper to be read and seen by others is another factor that would determine how much citations one would get, that is the major reason publishing in an open access journal. Considering the amount charged by most of the open access journal is also another discouragement.

If we could have more platform like research gate that would help for more interaction between researchers and easy access to papers which I believe would aid in more citations of good and quality papers

As a research I believe if you do a good work, it would speak for it self and get citations

 my dear, i agree with Chalamala Srinivas

There is 2 kind of citations

1st is self citations an you cab do that through your self to put yourself as reference but I don't like that.

2nd is citations by other and this js depending on the quality of your work and if it's new and people can use it as reference.

Regards

 If the subject matter is topical, it could increase the number of citation.

@Okechukwu Ebuka Agbasi

I agree with you that we do a good work, it would speak for it self and get citations. Thank you for your opinion.

@Mohamed Hassaan

You are right Sir!.Everyone should do a quality work to be cited by other researcher.

@Kayode Asaju

Thank you for your comments. Can you please tell me some ways to check either subject matter is topical or not?

To boost your citation count to maximize impact, consider these 10 simple techniques suggested by Michelle Ebbs:

1.Cite your past work when it is relevant to a new manuscript. 

2.Carefully choose your keywords. 

3.Use your keywords and phrases in your title and repeatedly in your abstract. 

4.Use a consistent form of your name on all of your papers. 

5.Make sure that your information is correct. 

6.Make your manuscript easily accessible. 

7.Share your data. 

8.Present your work at conferences. 

9.Use social media. Provide links to your papers on social media.

10.Actively promote your work. Talk to other researchers about your paper, even ones not in your field, and email copies of your paper to researchers who may be interested. 

@Dilip Kumar Kundu 

Thank you so much Sir!. You gave very precise but useful information with authenticated reference. 

Dear Dilip Sir ! 

thank you so much  for your valuable suggestions

use send privately option in RG to send your papers to the persons asking for your paper so that you can improve your citation

@Sabarinath Pandurengan

thank you Sir for your suggestion. But i think public sharing is more good to share our research. What do you say? if we make a comparison of private and public sharing, which one is good?

@Naveed,

the research may be published in a journal or book that does not allow for public sharing for a certain period of time. In order to avoid any unwanted consequences you can share privately. I had an experience where I put a book chapter on RG, without checking whether I was allowed to do that, and I got an email the next day by the lead author to say that the book publisher asked them to ask me to remove it ASAP. 

@Yurgos Politis

Dear colleague, Thank you so much. You have identified a major problem with public sharing, Copyrights. It was not in my mind. You have shared your personal experience, that will help junior researchers in future.

Dear Naveed

I agree in a 100 % with what Maria says.

In my modest opinion sharing is by far more important than citation. It is certainly important if you are a university professor and you need to demonstrate that your work is recognized, but no more than that.

Related with your question about self citing, why not?

If you are writing a paper and in a part of it you employ concepts that you developed before, or results from your experiments, how are you going to make the reader aware that they exists if you do not cite them?

Platforms like RG, allowing sharing, criticism, questions and answers are playing an excellent role in permitting  to connect and get responses from thousands of people in your area.

Citations are of course important but again, with sharing,  an author usually gets more benefits that the requester, because it makes him/her aware on aspects that he/she never considered and also learns about  circumstances, situations and problems , new techniques, etc. that did not even know that existed.

@Nolberto Munier

Your comments are always useful for junior researcher. Thank you so much for sharing benefits about self-citation and public sharing.

simple, no cheating. read,  properly analyse and quote. Publish in well known OA journals, which sill be useful. best wishes

OA platforms could be helpful.

High impact journals should be preferred rather than low or no impact journals.

we all know impact factor is not correct method of increasing citation as it is for journal. H! index is individual grading. First of all researchers should know about ur publication and if they find it useful then citation gets enhanced. U can find many articles simply quote one ref for each two lines. it is something like summary. why should we worry for citations as long as ur article is felt useful and read. recent my newspaper article is well read but nil citations? I am happy for getting lovely feedback. good luck

@Laxman Rao Nagubandi

You are right Sir! No one can deny the importance of getting cite but interaction among researchers is more important.

@Huma Shafiq

You are right Huma, High impact journals increase the chances of getting cite.

Visibility, quality and problems solved or addressed by an article are some of the major factors that can increase its citations

@B.O. Bolaji 

I agree with your answer.

The level of currency and distinction coupled with innovation and creativity in writing style would appeal to a larger audience in the shortest possible time. Clarity and simplicity of language of expression are also very much fundamental to generating understanding, hence, referencing by others. 

@Babatunji Adedeji

I agree with your opinion. What do you think do an attractive title can also increase the number of citations? 

@Naveed Ahmad

Great idea but the substance within will make it to be more attractive or what do you think?

@Babatunji Adedeji 

Yeah...But attractive title will capture the initial attention and then good substance increase the chances of citations. 

Yes. But its availability to readers remains an issue. This may be dealt with by submitting such articles to national repositories. Further to this debate I have had three of mine go up on the Digital Library of India's website. Thank you all! Ajay

"There is a ridiculously strong relationship between the number of citations a paper receives and its number of references," Gregory Webster, the psychologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville who conducted the research, told Nature. "If you want to get more cited, the answer could be to cite more people."

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100813/full/news.2010.406.html

I believe the quality of your work matters a lot. Also it is dependent on how you publicize your article to the scientific community. Making a lot of academician and industry persons know about your work can increase your visibility and then citation as well.

Useful information.

agree with Bassam Tayeh.

@Harry Barton Essel

I also agree with you dear

Hi everyone,

I have attached a file. please find it here.

1.Use functional websites: before submitting your manuscript, check some

information about scientific journals and their ranking such as www.medsciediting.

com which was founded in 2008.

2.Use the same research name and affiliation forever: It is mandatory to choose

an official institutional affiliation and contact information in all research papers

without any abbreviation. Do not forget writing the university, faculty

and department. Many grate scientific productions had been lost due to this

issue. Author affiliation standardization is outstanding to make sure that a

scientific production can be attributed to the correct author and institution

3. check this paper:

Article Enhance Impact of Researchers, Journals and Increase success...