# Recommending and sharing content

### Page contents

* [Overview](#overview)
* [What you can recommend](#what-you-can-recommend)
* [How to recommend a research item](#how-to-recommend-a-research-item)
* [Understanding recommendations](#understanding-recommendations)
* [How to share a research item](#how-to-share-a-research-item)

#### Overview <a href="#overview" id="overview"></a>

On ResearchGate, you have two primary ways to connect your peers with high-quality research: recommending it publicly or sharing it privately.

* **Recommend:** This is a public action. It helps your peers and network discover valuable research.
* **Share:** This is a private action. It allows you to send a research item directly to specific colleagues or groups for private discussion.

You might recommend or share a research item for these reasons:

* To highlight important or cutting-edge research.
* To keep your network updated on relevant research in your field.
* To start a discussion with peers or colleagues.
* To share your own work with your professional network.

#### What you can recommend <a href="#what-you-can-recommend" id="what-you-can-recommend"></a>

You can recommend any research item you believe is valuable to the community, including:

* Articles, preprints, and conference papers
* Questions and answers

#### How to recommend a research item <a href="#how-to-recommend-a-research-item" id="how-to-recommend-a-research-item"></a>

**Follow these steps to publicly recommend a publication or preprint:**

1. Go to the research item's page.
2. Click the **More** button located under the statistics on the right-hand side of the page.
3. Select **Recommend publicly** from the menu.

**To recommend a question or answer:**

* Simply click the **Recommend** button that appears directly below the question or answer.

**To remove your recommendation:**

Follow the steps above and click the button again, which will now show as **Recommended**.

#### Understanding recommendations <a href="#understanding-recommendations" id="understanding-recommendations"></a>

Recommendations are public on ResearchGate:

* Your network is notified and will see your recommendation appear in their activity feed.
* Other researchers will see that you have recommended the item when they visit its page.

#### How to share a research item <a href="#how-to-share-a-research-item" id="how-to-share-a-research-item"></a>

If you want to share a research item with a select person or group privately, follow these steps:

1. Go to the research item's page.
2. Click the **Share** button located under the statistics on the right-hand side of the page.
3. Choose how you want to share: Select **Share on Twitter** or **Share as a message**.
4. Enter the recipient(s): Type the names of the researchers you want to share with, or select them from the suggestions.
5. Click **Share**.

Important Note on private messages: You can only share a research item via private message with researchers who are already in your network.

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# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://help.researchgate.net/getting-started/recommending-and-sharing-content.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.