Security and privacy
We take personal data policies very seriously. For more information, read our Privacy Policy.
Your profile visibility
ResearchGate is a collaboration platform dedicated to open science, which includes sharing scientific information and recognizing authors. For this reason, your profile page is automatically publicly visible when you sign up. This means that most your profile information is visible to visitors who are not logged in and is therefore available to search engines.
You have the control to manage this visibility at any time in your Privacy Settings.
How to manage your public profile
To choose whether your profile is publicly visible to search engines and non-members:
Go to your Privacy Settings and scroll down to Your public profile.
Check the box to enable your public page or uncheck the box to disable it.
You can also choose whether your profile photo and questions and answers are displayed on your public page.
Your changes will be saved automatically.
Important note on search engines:
Please note that search engines update at their own pace, so it may take some time for your public ResearchGate profile to appear in search results.
If you disable your public page, it may take a few weeks for your profile to stop appearing in external search results like Google. However, once the page is removed from ResearchGate, any old URLs will redirect to a generic ResearchGate page as per our policy. Disabling your public page does not prevent your research (e.g., full-texts, abstracts) from being indexed on search engines.
Controlling the information on your profile
You can also choose how much of your information is displayed to other ResearchGate members.
Go to your Privacy Settings.
Select the drop-down menu under Your research.
Choose who can see your Researcher info (e.g., experience, skills, awards) by selecting:
Everyone
ResearchGate members (including recruiters)
Mutual followers
The settings will be updated automatically
Who Can See My Contact Details?
Only your mutual followers (researchers who are following you and you are following back) can see your personal contact details, including your address and phone numbers.
How to Block Someone
If you need to limit contact with another member:
Go to the profile of the researcher you want to block.
Select the three dots (...) on the right side of the page and choose Block researcher from the dropdown menu.
What happens when you block someone?
They will not be able to follow you or message you.
Blocking works both ways; your contact with them will be limited in the same way.
Blocked members will see limited updates about your activity. The only exception is co-authors, who will still get updates about your shared publications.
The blocked member will not be notified that you blocked them.
Email Address Security
It is our policy to never share your email address with external parties. The only cases where your email address might be publicly visible are if you made your email address publicly available on your profile (e.g., in your About me section) or if it features on a full-text you have made public. We use your email address only to send you ResearchGate-related emails.
Security Settings and Login Alerts
ResearchGate is committed to ensuring your account security and will notify you of logins that seem unusual. This can happen when you:
Sign in for the first time from a new device.
Use your browser's "private mode" or "incognito mode."
If someone else gains access to your account.
Monitoring Logins:
On the Security Settings tab of your Settings, you can review a list of all devices that have logged into your account, including the time, date, and approximate location. You will receive an email alert if a login attempt is made from a device you haven't used before, and clicking on Recently used devices in the email will take you directly to your Security Settings.
Turning Login Notifications On/Off:
If you no longer wish to receive email login alerts:
Go to your Security Settings.
Check or uncheck the box under Email login alerts.
Logging Out of a Device:
The Other devices section in your Security Settings shows a list of recent logins from any other devices and browsers.
To log out of ResearchGate on another computer, phone, or tablet:
Go to your Security Settings.
Find the session you want to log out from, click on it, and select Log out.
Note: Any sessions that are grayed out are already logged out.
If You Don't Recognize a Login:
If you receive a login alert from an unfamiliar browser or location, immediately follow the instructions here to reset your password and secure your account.
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