  The academic social network site ResearchGate (RG) has its own indicator, RG
Score, for its members. The high profile nature of the site means that the RG
score may be used for recruitment, promotion and other tasks for which
researchers are evaluated. In response, this study investigates whether it is
reasonable to employ the RG Score as evidence of scholarly reputation. For
this, three different author samples were investigated. An outlier sample
includes 104 authors with high values. A Nobel sample comprises 73 Nobel
winners from Medicine & Physiology, Chemistry, Physics and Economics (from 1975
to 2015). A longitudinal sample includes weekly data on 4 authors with
different RG Scores. The results suggest that high RG Scores are built
primarily from activity related to asking and answering questions in the site.
In particular, it seems impossible to get a high RG Score solely through
publications. Within RG it is possible to distinguish between (passive)
academics that interact little in the site and active platform users, who can
get high RG Scores through engaging with others inside the site (questions,
answers, social networks with influential researchers). Thus, RG Scores should
not be mistaken for academic reputation indicators.
