Mankind has made giant steps forward. However, what we know is really very, very little compared to what we still have to know. — Higgs Boson physicist Fabiola Gianotti

We live in an age of dynamic technological progress, which means we get to enjoy some remarkable developments in all fields touched by research. With each passing day, medical discoveries can save more lives, airplanes can fly safer, and smartphones can do more than even science fiction could envision.

However, whilst reaping all those benefits, we are also experiencing an information overload that is unprecedented in human history. This is especially true for researchers, who are faced with a task that’s becoming more and more overwhelming: keeping up with all the latest developments in their area.

At ResearchGate, we know that a scientist’s reading list is always growing exponentially, and we want to provide our members with the tools they need to focus on the content that matters the most to them. This is why we developed the Home Feed as a place where you can quickly glance through updates from your network and discover research that can actually make a difference to your work. As with any newsfeed, the Home Feed aims to provide researchers with a snapshot of all the latest developments in their specific area of expertise and to highlight anything we think might be of interest to them.

Your feed, your needs

In team Community Experience, we sometimes hear from members who wish to better tailor their Home Feed to their interests. In such cases, we try to help those researchers customize their profile and network so that they can get the best experience out of this feature. Here’s how to get the most out of your Home Feed:

1. Start with your profile
   The recommendations you see throughout the website are based on a number of sources, but the best place to start if you wish to improve your Home Feed is your own profile. The research items you have added to your profile tell us a lot about what kind of content you might be looking for. This means that the more items you add to your Research list, the more we know about what kind of work you do and would therefore be interested in learning more about.
2. Check your publications
   After you’ve built out your profile, make sure your publications are all properly attributed: take special care to see that you haven’t accidentally claimed someone else’s work as this could mislead our algorithm. If you find another researcher’s publication among your own, you can correct this by visiting the Research tab in your profile, clicking on the downward-facing arrow under the title next to ‘Add resources’, and selecting 'Remove'.
   If you need to remove more than one research item, you can do this by going to your Research tab and clicking on the pencil icon above your list of research. From there, you can deselect the items you would like to remove from your profile.

1. Engage with research
   Either by choice or by circumstance (e.g. due to joining the platform along with people from the same lab), your Home Feed may be showing you work from a small circle of researchers. If you want to branch out, it’s important to engage with research outside of your usual network. It is helpful to read works that relate closely to the topics you wish to see more of. Visiting a publication page, project page, or Q&A post will give us a better idea of what you’re interested in. When you preview or request a publication’s full text, this provides an even stronger indicator that this is the type of research you would want to keep seeing. Finally, and most importantly, one of the best ways to tell us that you are interested in a particular type of research is to either follow, recommend, or add items to your Saved list.
2. Curate your network
   The suggestions you see on your Home Feed are also influenced by your network: the people you follow, your co-authors, and extended network, so if you want to make sure you are seeing the ‘right’ updates, make sure you follow the ‘right’ people. We have observed that the people who get the most out of this feature also unfollow people whose activities on ResearchGate are no longer interesting to them.

Have more questions about using the platform? Learn more about how to get the best experience on ResearchGate.

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