Question about ResearchGate.

[Myword]

 As a member, I get emails saying that some scholar in Africa or Mideast, usually, quoted my article (in humanities) that is totally irrelevant to their research. I don't understand this or if it is true. My articles have no connection to the technical or medical subjects in some report on hospitals, for example. Incredulous.

Do you get this also?  Is ResearchGate at fault here? Is this meaningful?

[Puget]

I use research gate and have never had this happen-- citations to my papers all make sense.

Are they actually quoting from your article, or does it just have the citation? And is it really a citation to your paper in the reference list, or just a RG alert that you've been cited?

If the later, perhaps your article has a citation similar to another article in some reference style (e.g., styles that don't include the title), so it is getting misread by the automated system? If the former, I have no idea-- maybe your work is more interdisciplinary than you thought!

[mamselle]

I haven't done as much with RG but my Academia site gets false citations all the time.

It asks me to confirm whether this street name in an author's bio is me, whether this person with the same last name but different initials--who's apparently doing a lot of testosterone studies--is me, and several others.

There are a few that are mine, and those are usually logical inclusions.

The others I just reject and don't worry about--their search machine is certainly avid, I will say that.

But no issues, otherwise.

M. 

[Hibush]

As a member, I get emails saying that some scholar in Africa or Mideast, usually, quoted my article (in humanities) that is totally irrelevant to their research. I don't understand this or if it is true. My articles have no connection to the technical or medical subjects in some report on hospitals, for example. Incredulous.

Do you get this also?  Is ResearchGate at fault here? Is this meaningful?

I get these notices as well, and the citations are real. My impression is that there are some schools in the Middle East and south Asia that require a certain number of publciations and that they count uncritical reviews published in journals of convenience. The citations to my work are perhaps a few degrees more accurate than yours, but I don't consider them to matter in terms of engaging with my published research and moving the field forward.

I don't think RG is at fault. indeed, I appreciate RG making me aware of what is going on.

[Parasaurolophus]

I haven't done as much with RG but my Academia site gets false citations all the time.

Same here. Those often conflate me and my mother--doubtless because we have the same first initial and last name.

[Myword]

 What do you mean  journal of convenience? And why my article that has absolutely nothing to do with some author's work??  How would they find an article on ancient times, for example, when they are in a medical field?
 
So they need numerous citations, I got it. But citing some irrelevant subject wastes everyone's time and is bad writing, sort of dishonest.  You can see, these citations mean nothing to me and to them.

Once a Mideast scholar wrote a whole article questioning my article, but I haven't read it!

[Ruralguy]

Some are likely real, others are confusions and such. Why do you care? You can presumably check real citations with a more professionally maintained database.

[Hibush]

I haven't done as much with RG but my Academia site gets false citations all the time.

Same here. Those often conflate me and my mother--doubtless because we have the same first initial and last name.

You can clear that up by going through RG's suggestions ("we think this is your article...") and click yes or no on each. The algorithm starts figuring out who is who and you see fewer and fewer articles from the people with whom you share a name.