From the looks of it, there are many researchers whom are lacking posters underneath their 'Research Items'. There can only be a few different reasons for this:
1. They do not think it belongs on Research Gate.
2. They think it belongs on Research Gate but are for some reason not interested in uploading them.
3. They think it belongs on Research Gate but thinks that it's more important to wait until the research is developed into an article or other peer-reviewed publication.
4. They haven't contributed to any poster and/or the lead author for the poster wishes not to upload it.
I think 1. and 4. aren't very likely, hence only 2. and 3. remain. So either the poster is not very important in terms of scientific contribution, or it's better to not upload a poster due to the research being made into an article. But wouldn't a poster contribute to the overall traction of both your research and you yourself as a researcher?
What would be the reasons to not upload a poster to Research Gate?
In the late 1990's there was a huge increase in the number of posters presented at national conferences in geology, paleontology, and soils. At first, it was driven largely by students (as a less stressful alternative to a platform presentation) but later established scientists of all kinds adopted the format. Both can result in a published (sometimes peer reviewed) abstract. The same arguments have been advanced as a reason to not post abstracts. My career has been such that sometimes many years pass between the first advancement of my research (the poster/abstract) and the completed paper. Thus the poster/abstract functions as a placeholder for the (eventually) completed work.
I'd like to advance: 5) Posters/abstracts represent "work in progress" and the authors don't want to divulge their hypotheses and data (for fear of being undercut by someone else) until its published and they receive full credit for it.
In my opinion, posters/abstracts represent the "cutting edge" of current research and definitely belong on Researchgate.
The impact/citations derived from a poster would be less than that of an article, so perhaps there isn't enough "incentive"?
Agreed on the current sentiments. Posters, while current, are mostly not considered to have an equivalence of other dissemination formats i.e. journals, books, book chapters etc. Not sure that will change in the current format before long.
Posters are often easier to understand than even an abstract. Often they have images included. I put my posters on Research Gate when I get around to it!
They do, just in smaller proportions. I think that posters are undervalued, therefore, most researchers gradually turn towards journals and books as they advance in their career. It is a shame, personally I find a good poster extremely informative and enjoyable.
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