Claire Webber is Head of Content and Engagement Marketing at IOP Publishing (IOPP). IOPP first partnered with ResearchGate in January 2022, the first time a physics society publisher made its content available on the platform. Here, we talk to Claire about IOPP’s experiences, and why they have extended their collaboration in 2023.

^{______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________}

IOPP and ResearchGate announced their partnership in January 2022. What were your impressions of ResearchGate before you started the collaboration?

We were aware that ResearchGate had grown exponentially in recent years to become a key platform for researchers to get hold of content and share their own research. We also noticed the increase in publishers starting to explore how ResearchGate could work for them and wanted to be part of that cohort.

"We were aware that ResearchGate had grown exponentially in recent years to become a key platform for researchers to get hold of content and share their own research."

What motivated the decision to work with ResearchGate? 

As a publisher, we want to ensure that our content is read as widely as possible. We wanted to be able to compare how usage on ResearchGate differs from our own content platform, IOPscience. Our hope was that ResearchGate could encourage more engagement with our journals, providing awareness at a journal brand level and to some extent at the IOPP level too. 

Were there particular challenges you were looking to address through working with ResearchGate?

Author marketing is so key in the transition to Open Access, we need to be talking to individual authors, and personalising our marketing. Knowing more about them helps us to do that in a much smarter way. So part of our motivations for working with ResearchGate was to gain more insights than we could on our own platform. It also opens a new way to reach those individual authors where they are.

"Part of our motivations for working with ResearchGate was to gain more insights than we could on our own platform. It also opens a new way to reach those individual authors where they are."

What have you seen from the collaboration?

We started a content syndication pilot with ResearchGate for seven titles in 2022, initially just focused on usage and comparing that to our platform as the main KPI, and we did see an uplift in usage this year which has continued to grow. 

Additionally, ResearchGate have been great in finding solutions to help audiences discover our journals. We were pleased to see how the collaboration has evolved Journal Home to offer more prominence to our journals, and help users see how their connections are working with a journal, for example as editorial board members or authors. We can see this has boosted the usage and visibility of our journals on the platform.

"Additionally, ResearchGate have been great in finding solutions to help audiences discover our journals. We were pleased to see how the collaboration has evolved Journal Home to offer more prominence to our journals, and help users see how their connections are working with a journal."

How is IOP Publishing benefitting from the audience insights provided by ResearchGate?

ResearchGate is in a unique position where they have really great insight into researcher audiences. They've got millions of researcher users who build up their profiles and are actively using the platform. For a lot of publishers, where we only have IP addresses available to recognise individuals or institutions, to get that deeper level of insights and understanding is key as we look to improve our marketing and communication to researchers.

ResearchGate have been great at sharing aggregated insights on audience segments to help us better understand our journal audiences, for example career stages, subject areas that researchers are working in, geographies and institutions. We're seeing some really interesting results looking at audiences and their relationship with IOPP content and what that means in terms of their engagement with our journals. We’re about to head into 2024 planning, and all the insight we're getting from ResearchGate will help inform our strategies for next year.

"We're seeing some really interesting results looking at audiences and their relationship with IOPP content and what that means in terms of their engagement with our journals. We’re about to head into 2024 planning, and all the insight we're getting from ResearchGate will help inform our strategies for next year."

You’ve now decided to extend that collaboration: what are your expectations?

For 2023, we're increasing the number of journals and we're also including more newly launched titles as well because we see ResearchGate as a way of helping to establish those brands.

Overall, we do see them as a really key partner to reach a really wide audience and a very relevant audience.

"Overall, we do see them [ResearchGate] as a really key partner to reach a really wide audience and a very relevant audience."

What would your advice be for others considering a collaboration with ResearchGate?

ResearchGate is a dynamic company, and are keen to work with publishers. They have listened to our requirements and what we're trying to get out of the partnership. I look forward to every meeting because there's always something new that they want to share. It’s definitely worth exploring how ResearchGate could support publishers with their aims and objectives, particularly for author marketing.

"It’s definitely worth exploring how ResearchGate could support publishers with their aims and objectives."