You should provide a merge function for our users to merge the articles by ourselves. Because we know our work way better than your checking system. This duplicate problem may make researchgate less authoritative , arxiv do better than researchgate in version control.

I think there is a bug. I wanted to attach a file (pre-pub manuscript for example)  to an existing entry, and the system creates a new entry. I tried all possible ways to 'merge' to no avail.  I am following your question to see if somebody has a solution

I have had a response via email from ResearchGate Community Support which says that if the two records are identical then the system will automatically merge them for you (this can take up to 72 hours and only works if you didn't create both records).

If you created both records then they will not merge automatically and the only current option is to delete one of the records. 

I have responded to them suggesting that adding the facility to manually merge records would be helpful (and oddly more intuitive then their current system). 

PeterT

I hope they'll add the feature you suggest, Peter (manual merge). It's available on Google Scholar.

ResearchGate automatically merges publications where all information is identical, including title, publication date, and journal. To edit your duplicate publications and make the information identical:

1. Go to the publication’s ResearchGate page by clicking on the title of the publication

2. Click on the 3 blue circles to the right of 'Download' and 'Request Feedback' and select 'Edit' from the drop-down list

3. Make the necessary changes

4. Click ‘Save.’

Once all of the information is matched, it can take up to 72 hours for the publications to be automatically merged. 

Here you go a link with the solution:

https://explore.researchgate.net/display/support/Reporting+duplicate+publications+and+profiles

This is brutal. I keep getting duplicated publications and I'm constantly having to manage them. Researchgate really needs to improve this.

The same issue I experienced. I wounder why Researcghate yet hasn't taken any action? People were complaining for years!

It might affect the stat-metrics of your manuscript if you carry out an automatic merge following ResearchGate's guide: https://explore.researchgate.net/display/support/Reporting+duplicate+publications+and+profiles

Apparently, the automatic merge picks a preferred version at random and uses it's # of reads/recommendations. According to the blurb that is given when contacting ResearchGate Help Center, the # of citations is allegedly added together: "The duplicate version's citations will be added, but its reads will not." It does not specify anywhere what happens to recommendations, but these are apparently treated the same as reads, i.e., not transferred.

I think that you can choose which of the two versions you would prefer to keep the stat-metrics of if you do not follow the guide of the automatic merge, but instead contact ResearchGate Help Center and make them do the merge for you.

I hope that the process of merging will be made easier and more transparent in the future.

I wonder why they cannot add the basic functionality that Google Scholar has for this? Obviously there is considerable dissatisfaction with the way this works (or rather, doesn't) here on RG, and has been for years.

Yeah, I just logged in for the first time in probably over a year. Still no way to merge records. I'll check back next year I guess.

I just had this happen where an automatically added item duplicated an entry I added previously. I would delete the original, except that I don't want to disrupt anyone following or to reset the stats. This should be made possible, and if there is an automatic merging process, we should know exactly how to align with it.

You should provide a merge function for our users to merge the articles by ourselves. Because we know our work way better than your checking system. This duplicate problem may make researchgate less authoritative , arxiv do better than researchgate in version control.

The Researchgate technical team suggests that the duplicate publications will automatically merge with 72 hours; however, I waited for a month but nothing happen. Finally, I deleted one of the duplicate versions myself.

I have changed the information of some publications to be identical since a month and still no way to merge them.

I have changed the information of some publications to be identical since a month and still no way to merge them. I might need to delete one of the duplicate versions myself.

I have changed the information of some publications to be identical since a month and still no way to merge them. I might need to delete one of the duplicate versions myself. I have changed the information of some publications to be identical since a month and still no way to merge them. I might need to delete one of the duplicate versions myself.

(Update)

I requested this problem to researchgate and they merged two papers into one. Now, it has one DOI (conference one) and all number of readings from two papers are also merged. So, if you have similar problem, I strongly recommend asking help for researchgate team.

---------------------

I also have two papers in my list now. One from my arXiv version and one from conference. I really want to combine them like google scholar but no ways. I would like to delete without losing all read / recommendations.

Also, I deleted one of them and I edit other one with new DOI, it simply doesn't work since they said the paper with DOI is already there...What do you want to do for this issue? I will ask ResearchGate today and see what they answer to me.

Hey Researchgate--time to fix this! Do you hear us?!

Yes, this is a very valid issue and Research gate should come up with a good solution.

Dear all,

You can resolve this issue by following these steps:

1- Go to this page:

https://www.researchgate.net/contact?type=contact_duplicate_accounts

2- From the drop down menu, select:

"I have found duplicate publications"

3- Fill in the requested information in the message textbox.

I have tried this a couple of times and the publications were merged as requested in a few days.

Best regards,

Mohammed

I guess it is rather this link:

https://www.researchgate.net/contact?type=contact_duplicate_publications

OK, Thank you.

It says in the link that "Your preferred version and its reads will be kept. The duplicate version's citations will be added, but its reads will not." So it's not exactly what we want, we want to add the number of reads and recommendations and merge duplicate publications.

Dear Shokoofeh, unfortunately, this is the only solution I could find for now. And it was not easy to find :)

I have had luck with using this approach:

1- Go to this page:

https://www.researchgate.net/contact?type=contact_duplicate_accounts

2- From the drop-down menu, select:

"I have found duplicate publications"

3- Fill in the requested information in the message text-box. (Make sure you pick the right URL to keep and the right URL to get rid of/merge.)

Good luck!

Dear colleagues

I have faced the same situation. I agree that RG should provide a "merge function" for users to merge their own articles.

I wrote to

https://www.researchgate.net/contact?type=contact_duplicate_publications

about three cases. After about a month, only one pair was merged.

At the same time, I made the data for publications absolutely identical (in particular, removed DOI);

no automatic recognition happened :(

We should start a petition. All systems like ORCID, Mendeley, Google scholar allow authors to control the chaos in their publication list (merging, grouping, removing, hiding...). But not RG....

The situation get worse with preprints (from arxiv) and final publication in conferences or journals. The adding is automatic for both of them. Having a merging option just in the review of added papers will solve al the problems. I hope that researchgate add this option.

Note that it is not possible to merge one article with the corresponding preprint. This also is annoying (I mean: when you ask RG to merge them, they answer that they can't).

I’ve found a duplicate research item. How can I report it?

Duplicates can occur when an author adds a research item that is already in our database, or when more than one author adds the same item. If you have found duplicate research items on your Research tab, please help us merge them by editing the items' details. We automatically merge research items where all information is identical, including title, date of publication, author list, and journal.

Please note: Research items will not automatically merge if:

• you have added both of the research items yourself 
• all information is not identical
• one of the research items has a DOI
• both items have different DOIs. 

Please also note that we don’t merge articles with their linked data or preprints. We encourage our members to upload their work during all stages of the publication process, so we consider these to be separate research items. 

If you want two identical research items to automatically merge, you can edit their details by following these steps:

Please note: It can take up to 72 hours for the items to merge.

If you prefer to simply delete one of your duplicate research items, you can find out about your options for removal here.