ResearchGate

ResearchGate is a popular academic profile site and for-profit company that makes money through sponsors, as well as recruitment and other advertising, so practically selling data about its users to advertisers, then carrying that advertising to the target audience.
Users can upload research outputs, but ResearchGate does not have a license to host all the publications that are available on its platform (though it does have agreements in place with some publishers). This means that it is possible for publishers to send take-down notices to ResearchGate, requiring them to remove certain publications.
While ResearchGate is great for connecting with like-minded academics and engaging in discussions, it is important to archive publications in a non-profit institutional or disciplinary repository. A non-profit institutional or disciplinary repository is a safe and reliable place to archive your publications. For University of Liverpool researchers, papers should be uploaded to the Unviersity Repository via Elements. Repositories are typically run by universities, libraries, or other academic institutions. They have the legal right to host your publications, and they are less likely to be subject to take-down notices from publishers.

What is ResearchGate for?	What is ResearchGate not for?
Connecting with other researchers, similar to social networks like LinkedIn Engaging in discussions	Sharing all your publications: as tempting as it is, and as common practice as it seems to be, before sharing any content, you need to be aware of the licence your research was published under. Many publishers don’t allow sharing of publications on commercial/for-profit sites, which ResearchGate (and Academia.edu) are. Metric reports: seemingly conveniently, ResearchGate offers citation reports. Bear in mind that these reports are limited to the content uploaded to ResearchGate and do not reach citation numbers outside of it, and that papers are regularly being removed due to license breaches. Wanting to keep your data safe: ResearchGate’s business model is for-profit, which means it makes money by selling advertising and data about its users.

What is ResearchGate for?

What is ResearchGate not for?

Sharing all your publications: as tempting as it is, and as common practice as it seems to be, before sharing any content, you need to be aware of the licence your research was published under. Many publishers don’t allow sharing of publications on commercial/for-profit sites, which ResearchGate (and Academia.edu) are.
Metric reports: seemingly conveniently, ResearchGate offers citation reports. Bear in mind that these reports are limited to the content uploaded to ResearchGate and do not reach citation numbers outside of it, and that papers are regularly being removed due to license breaches.
Wanting to keep your data safe: ResearchGate’s business model is for-profit, which means it makes money by selling advertising and data about its users.

But ResearchGate provides metrics!

Indeed it does, but bear in mind that the citation metrics are based on citations of outputs only within ResearchGate. This means

It has its limitations in terms of numbers of outputs it considers.
Due to licensing issues, outputs are regularly removed from the platform, which means citation metrics are unreliable.
The metrics available do not show the impact outside of ResearchGate, nor do they show citation impact outside of academia. This means your ResearchGate does not provide any alternative metrics (or Real World Impact), which helps explore the impact of your research, show funders the broad reach of your activities, manage your scholarly reputation, and help find collaborators by comparing your work to others in your field.