Does Knowledge Sharing in ReseachGate Scientific Network Increase Researchers’ Productivity Indicators?: Case Study of Top World Physicists

The predictive power of researchers' productivity indicators in the Google Scholar has been investigated through metrics of the ResearchGate . This study is original in terms of objective and data gathering. The study adopted a descriptive method with webometrics approach. The population of this study consisted of authors of the most cited articles in the physics and space sciences field that were indexed in Scopus during 2005-2014. The authors were members of ResearchGate and had profiles in google scholar. The first 200 articles based on citation were selected as the sample. The data was analyzed using correlation and multiple regression. The results showed that download had a significant positive relation with H-index so that the regression model was significant. Download variable had the ability to predict researchers’ H-index. However, the regression model for i10 was not significant and none of the predictor variables had the ability to predict i10. Greater knowledge sharing by researchers through ResearchGate may increase the probability of visibility, hence an increase in download counts. Downloading and studying the scientific works of researchers can lead to the use of that work and thus increase productivity indicators of the researchers.