If I upload my research to researchgate, will this guarantee me copyright? Because I sent my research there and I added it to the site with ease and no one has reviewed it before sending it.
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1What do you mean by "guarantee me copyright"?– GoodDeedsCommented Nov 7, 2021 at 2:01
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explore.researchgate.net/display/support/Copyright– GoodDeedsCommented Nov 7, 2021 at 2:02
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@GoodDeeds I mean, will no one steal my research?– Mouhamade belCommented Nov 7, 2021 at 2:04
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5@Mouhamadebel No action on your part can guarantee that no one will steal your research.– user116675Commented Nov 7, 2021 at 10:26
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1Are you talking about making otherwise unpublished results available on ReasearchGate?– SnijderfreyCommented Nov 7, 2021 at 19:07
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2 Answers
Because I sent my research there and I added it to the site with ease and no one has reviewed it before sending it
This is because Researchgate is NOT a peer-reviewed journal, NOT a book publisher and so on. It is a social network for scientists so that you'd have relevant research in your morning feed instead of funny cat pictures. It is quite brilliant as a concept, but absolutely NOT a substitute for proper publishing. In some fields, uploading preprints there instead of arXiv may be a common practice.
There also seem to be two important misconceptions, but Buffy and Wetenschaap have already addressed them - copyright is NOT the same as the proper attribution of ideas: you may be giving the publisher exclusive rights to distribute your work in some cases, and uploading it elsewhere might be a breach of contract. With all that said, indeed, there's never a guarantee someone else won't "steal"/misattribute your work ignoring every possible concern about the intellectual property.
Note that copyright law varies around the world, so your own country's law will apply. In the US and some other places, your copyright rights begin when you make something eligible public in pretty much any way, including Researchgate or your own website. Other places require a specific registration process, though that may be disappearing.
Note, however, that Researchgate is also used for copyright infringement when people who don't hold rights to papers upload them anyway. But you can certainly put your own work there.
The concept of "owning" and "stealing" of research is a bit subtle. No one could claim priority, once you publish in any form, unless they already have a valid claim themselves. But you can't "own" ideas.
