Academia.edu is an academic research site developed to nourish students and other users with the proper knowledge. People wonder whether it is reliable but it is worth it to use.
While it is good, some students may still feel skeptical to rely on it for content. Is Academia.edu legit and worth it? We seek to answer this question in a comprehensive review of the site.
The platform allows one to post or publish original educational documents and papers to empower the users. The site has both free and premium versions to meet your need accordingly.
Is Academia.edu Legit?
As a reputable academic site, academic.edu is a legit organization that enjoys more than 150 million users across the globe. It is a registered company that complies with the regulations of the education sector in the US. This organization has its contact details well published for the purpose of traceability.
The powerful platform allows the users to create their profiles and upload their work as they strive to tap into extensive networks of people with similar research interests. The platforms boast millions of uploaded papers to support your research work.
What is Academia.edu?
It is a social networking website that supports academics. It is a dedicated website for academic institutions that allow users to share papers and other findings and make it easy for them to read. Millions of scholars and students access this virtual network.
Academia.edu assists the user to follow research in a particular area. Furthermore, one can still follow other academics in the respective fields and other journals.
One of the benefits that you expect from the site is that you get news feeds about the latest research updates from the specific individuals you are following. Read more about Academia.edu to understand its service as an educational research website.
The site allows user to share their talks, status update, papers, teaching documents, and blog posts. All people that will be following you can access the updates on their news feeds.
How to Use Academia.edu for Personal Studies
The first action is to log on to academia.edu as a way of keeping your professional online presence. You can sign up with your Google or Facebook profile. Once in, you can fill out your profile and add the OU affiliation. One advantage of adding OU affiliation is that it adds to a subdomain that empowers you to find your colleagues easily.
In the same vein, the site can guess your affiliation based on your IP or email address.
You can make some modifications by adding your title and the department.
Also, you should add your research interests to enable other researchers to find you and your work.
1. Posting a Publication
If you are an established scholar, you can choose what to share. It can be a walkover since you just select the most cited paper. Choosing might be a bit tough if you are a graduate or early in your career.
When you have a paper in mind before you publish it, ensure that you have the rights to the post. As an author, it is noteworthy that you will be signing away your copyright when publishing your articles with any incredible publisher.
Whenever you lack the copyright for a paper, there is still more hope for you. The platform allows you to post a section of the paper in an unformatted and unedited version. You can post the article by uploading it to the site by hitting the upload button.
Once through, you can click the blue button, which helps you to answer if you are uploading unpublished or published work. You can read more about Academia.edu and learn how you can utilize it for the better.
Next, the platform will extract the tile of your publication automatically. If necessary, you can make some modifications to the title as you add an abstract or co-authors.
If the authors are not members of academia.edu, you can add them by providing their email contact. That prompts the site to send the invitation to join the platform.
Lastly, there are generally specific keywords that other users can use to locate your publication at the research interests.
2. Connect with others
You can connect with other members who are on this site. You can use an email or Facebook account to Academia.edu. Again, the platform will search the contacts and also suggest connections.
You can keep the account lively by adding more publications. One can choose to add a photo and connect the profile with Twitter or LinkedIn.
How to Use academia.edu Free
If you are unwilling to go for the premium version, you can still access the platform and use its resource at no cost. Academia.edu is a prominent publisher that boasts of different research papers that the user can access without paying any penny.
However, you must use certain avenues that could assist you in using these resources without encountering costs.
Firstly, any paper on Academia is free to use and download.
The only qualification is to have an academic account to download the documents.
It is noteworthy that one does not need an account to read the academic papers on the same site.
What is in the Premium version
It could become trickier if some publishers opt to upload a partial piece of document. Such materials could be a table of contents, excerpt, or cover.
Such will prompt one to log on to the premium version to access such materials. There is more hope for you if you find suitable materials to support your research from millions of papers in the free version.
Alternatively, suppose you are in need of some materials that are already in the premium version. In that case, you can contact the author to strike a deal if he/she can provide a full version of that particular paper.
You can still befriend a fellow student who has an account with the academia premium version and use it to access those documents that are not available in the free version. Such a student must win your trust to allow you to use the account with the password remotely.
Another method is to ask the internet. You can access various platforms such as Reddit or Twitter and question whether you are looking in the academia premium.
The chances are that you are likely to find a friend who can research for you and give feedback as requested. It would help if you were careful to delete the request afterward.
Another successful method of allowing the user to access academia.edu for free is using Chrome Incognito.
This is a unique browser to use on the site if it has a limited number of papers and articles that one can access freely monthly. When you exit, your cookies get dumped, confusing the site you have been there before.
Is Academia.edu Worth It?
Yes, this platform is worthy to its user in many ways. Firstly, the website has the right materials to sharpen your knowledge when you are researching particular subjects.
You have the option to go for the premium version and gain unlimited access to some of the materials that you access to uplift your skills and knowledge.
Also, the site is resourceful, making you gain knowledge and interact with the right people to sharpen your understanding in many aspects. You can mingle with top scholars who can offer you help on request.
Is it Ok to publish your research on academia.edu?
Yes, publishing your paper on this platform establishes you as the authentic author and gains copyright. This site is authentic besides being considered a leading academic research site. It assists you to achieve a larger audience who could access your materials and seek clarifications and use.
When you publish your materials on this platform, bear in mind that it may not be the safest thing to do. In 2017, reports emerged asking people to delete their Academia.edu accounts, which gave it negative press and review. Check it out.
The site is reputable for hosting authentic papers from top scholars; hence it will add some credibility to your work. Lastly, publishing it on this site prevents anyone from plagiarizing it for malicious gains.
Joseph is a freelance journalist and a part-time writer with a particular interest in the gig economy. He writes about schooling, college life, and changing trends in education. When not writing, Joseph is hiking or playing chess.