Berlin (Germany) and Fayetteville, GA (USA) /Nanjing (China), November 5th 2026 – ResearchGate, the professional network for researchers, and Maximum Academic Press (MAP), an independent publishing company focused on Gold Open Access academic journals, today announced the activation of the Community Engagement Upgrade across all MAP journals on Journal Home. The upgrade introduces new editorial tools designed to help journal teams highlight important papers and develop more targeted approaches to community engagement.

Through the Community Engagement Upgrade, all MAP Journal Homes will benefit from:

• Increased article usage and readership: through Editor Picks, journal teams can spotlight selected articles to relevant researchers, increasing discoverability and supporting MAP’s objective of increasing citations to its leading content.
• Improved author experience and loyalty: Editor Picks gives journal teams another way to showcase authors’ work to relevant researchers, helping authors gain recognition and build stronger connections with the journals that publish their research.
• Increased authorship: helping MAP journals build relationships with relevant researchers beyond their existing audiences and strengthen connections with potential authors across their disciplines.

“Journal Home supports MAP’s commitment to making scientific knowledge openly available and enabling research to reach audiences who can learn from and build upon it,” said Professor Zong-Ming (Max) Cheng, chief editor and founder of MAP. “As an independent publisher, our priority is ensuring high-quality research gets the visibility it deserves. The Community Engagement Upgrade, particularly Editor Picks, gives our editorial teams another way to highlight important work and connect it with researchers beyond their established audiences.”

“Journal Home helps MAP connect selected research with relevant audiences across ResearchGate,” said Robyn Mugridge, Head of Partnership Development at ResearchGate. “Through the Community Engagement Upgrade, Editor Picks gives journal teams a direct way to spotlight important papers, helping researchers discover work across MAP’s disciplines and strengthening connections with potential authors.”

For more information about Journal Home, please visit https://www.researchgate.net/journal-home 

For more information about ResearchGate, please visit https://www.researchgate.net

For more information about Maximum Academic Press, please visit https://www.maxapress.com

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About ResearchGate 
ResearchGate is the professional network for researchers. Over 25 million researchers use ResearchGate to share and discover research, build their networks, and advance their careers. Based in Berlin, ResearchGate was founded in 2008. Its mission is to connect the world of science and make research open to all. 

ResearchGate media contact:  
press@researchgate.net

About Maximum Academic Press (MAP)
MAP is an independent publishing company focused on publishing golden open access academic journals. Since 2020, MAP has launched 50 academic journals spanning agriculture, biology, environmental sciences, medicine, statistics, engineering, chemistry, and the humanities and social sciences.

MAP media contact:
Ivory Gu, xiaoyingu@maxapress.com

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