One more word about ResearchGate/Academia.edu and why using these platforms will never be equal to proper self-archiving – DARIAH Open

In the past couple of years, we saw a massive advancement of platforms, tools and networks that enable us to share our research legally and freely. Even so, the use of ResearchGate and Academia.edu, two of the most popular but also heavily criticized social networks that compete with each other for the ‘Facebook for academics’ title, is still an ever recurring topic in conversations about self-archiving choices, or even in recent discussions about the role and competitive advantage of universities investing in open infrastructural components. These conversations inspired me to leave here an easily citable note in which I clarify why DARIAH does not endorse the use of these services, what  the major differences are between sharing papers via these privately-owned platforms vs. self-archiving (a.k.a. green Open Access) and why understanding the persistent popularity of these services is crucial if we wish to take back control over the ways we communicate our work. [...]