Academic Identity

Academia.edu is a platform for academics to share research papers. The company's mission is to accelerate the world's research.

Academics use Academia.edu to share their research, monitor deep analytics around the impact of their research, and track the research of academics they follow. More than 40,000,000 academics have signed up to Academia.edu, adding more than 14,000,000 papers and 1,900,000 research interests. Academia.edu attracts over 36 million unique visitors a month.

Although encompassing all academic fields, Academia.edu tends to be more popular in the humanities and social sciences.  On the site, you have a profile where you can list your research interests, institutional affiliation, collaborators, and papers.  Other scholars can follow you and you can track how many views you get.

Founded in 2003, LinkedIn connects the world's professionals in an effort to make them more productive and successful. With more than 450 million members worldwide, including executives from every Fortune 500 company, LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network on the Internet. The company has a diversified business model with revenue coming from Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions, and Premium Subscriptions products.

Although not focused on academia, having a LinkedIn account can help you connect with others especially if you interested in an alt-ac career.  Your profile page can list your employment experience, education, interests, projects, skills, and publications

Figshare is a repository where researchers can deposit their output allowing it to be citable, shareable, and discoverable.  You can find anything from posters and presentations to datasets, and code. When you deposit your items, they receive DOI which makes them easier to cite, track, and receive credit for.  You can share your information to select individuals or to the wider public and also customize how your content is organized to showcase your research.

Although Mendeley is primarily a citation manager, it also allows you to promote yourself and your research by connecting you to other users.  Your profile includes your academic background and publications You can join and create groups with others who have similar interests or follow other users.  Mendeley also analyzes your activity to recommend other readings and to suggest potential contacts.