How do I make my full-text private?
Rather than removing your full-text from ResearchGate entirely, you may wish to keep a private copy for all the co-authors to access easily, or so you can share it privately with people who request it. Even with private sharing, it is important that you make sure that you understand your rights before sharing your full-texts with others.
If you have questions about whether you're allowed to share your content on ResearchGate, your starting place should be your publisher policies. See our Directory of Publisher Copyright Policies for some specific publisher policies. For general information, see the Copyright section in the Help Center.
Here's how to make an existing public full-text private:
- Go to the Research tab on your profile
- Click the Manage file visibility option underneath Research items from the menu on the left-hand side. This page shows you any of your research items that have public or private full-texts added by you
- Find the research item you wish to update, and click Change who can see this next to the appropriate full-text file
- To make the full-text file private, select Store file privately and click Confirm.
How do I remove a publication page or full-text from my profile?
Here’s how you can remove a publication page and/or full-text from your profile or from ResearchGate entirely:
- Visit the Research tab on your profile and scroll down to the research item
- Click on the downward-facing arrow underneath the item's title
- Select Remove
- Select the relevant option
- Select your reason for removing
- Proceed by clicking on the relevant button.
If you want to review and manage all of the full-text files you added:
- Go to the Research tab on your profile
- Click the Manage file visibility option underneath Research items from the menu on the left-hand side. This page shows you any of your research items that have public or private full-texts added by you
- Find the research item you wish to update, and click Change who can see this next to the appropriate full-text file
- To remove the full-text file, select Permanently delete file and click Confirm. Alternatively, to keep the file but make the full-text file private, select Store file privately and click Confirm.
Note: Making a full-text file private means the full-text will no longer be publicly displayed, but a private copy will be available to you and the co-authors. You must always make sure that you have the right to publicly share or privately store your full-text before doing so. For more information see the Copyright section in the Help Center.
Why can't I remove a publication page or full-text?
Here are some possible reasons why you might not be able to remove a publication page or full-text:
- If you didn’t create a publication page, you will not have the option to remove it from ResearchGate entirely. You can, however, remove it from your profile.
- It’s not possible for you to remove a full-text that has been uploaded by a co-author. If you have concerns about a co-author making your full-text publicly available, you should get in touch with them directly in the first instance.
- We sometimes make a full-text available where a publication has a Creative Commons license. If you feel that a publication has been wrongly attributed a Creative Commons license, please contact us at www.researchgate.net/contact.
