Updates inform you about new followers, new publications of yours added by your co-authors, comments on your publications, answers to questions you asked or followed, and much more. Clicking on the update takes you directly to the new content, so you can instantly see who is interacting with your research and how.
Messages are where you can find private messages either sent to you or sent by you.
Sending a private message
There are a couple of ways to send private messages to other members on ResearchGate:
If you follow the researcher you're like to message:
- Click on the envelope icon at the top right-hand side of any page, then select Send message at the top right-hand corner of the dropdown menu.
- Or go to the profile page of the researcher you'd like to message and click the blue Message button on the right-hand side.
If you're not following the researcher you'd like to message, you can go to their profile page and click the white Message button to compose your message.
Note: Private messages are only visible to the sender and recipient.
Archiving conversations
You can move a message from your inbox to your archive folder by going to your message inbox by clicking on the envelope icon at the top of any ResearchGate page. Select the message you would like to move and click Archive conversation.
To reverse this process, filter your messages by Archived, click on the message you want to recover and click Unarchive conversation.
How do I delete my private messages?
To delete a private message, go to your message inbox by clicking on the envelope icon 
at the top of any ResearchGate page. Select the message you would like to delete and then click More underneath the message and select 'Delete conversation.'
Requests contain all Full-text, Author, Skills and other types of requests. These generally require some kind of answer or confirmation.
How do I respond to full-text requests?
To send a full-text that has been requested:
- Click on the speech bubble icon at the top-right of any ResearchGate page. Find the request you want to fulfill in the drop-down menu and click 'View request'. You can also click 'Decline request' if you wish to remove the request completely. If you do not see the request you want to respond to, go to your requests page at https://www.researchgate.net/requests or by clicking 'View all' at the bottom of the drop-down menu.
- On your requests page, you can manage all of your old and new requests. Click on the request you want to fulfill, and then click on the blue 'View request' button.
- A dialog box will appear with two options:
- Decline request
- Respond to...
- If you choose 'Decline request', the full-text request will disappear from your requests.
- If you choose 'Respond to...', a new box will appear. If a privately stored copy of the full-text is available on ResearchGate, you can choose the version of the stored publication you wish to upload and select 'Share this full-text'. Alternatively, there is an option to 'Share different full-text', in which case you can select a file from your computer. Once you have selected an option, the 'Upload' button will be highlighted to finish. Please note that if you decide to ‘Share publicly’, the full-text will be visible to everyone. If there is no privately stored copy of the full-text available on ResearchGate, you will see two options. Select 'I have a full-text I can share' and you will have the option to add a public full-text, or to send a full-text as a private message. If you select 'I don't have a full-text I can share', you can choose to send a message to the researcher who requested the full-text from you.
- If you choose to send the full-text to the requester only, select 'Send privately'. As above, if there is a privately stored copy of the full-text available on ResearchGate, you can choose the version of the stored publication that you wish to send. Alternatively, you can select a file from your computer. Add a message if you choose and then click 'Send'.
Please always remember to fully investigate and confirm that you have sufficient rights to publicly or privately share particular content before you do so. As we do not have any information about rights you may hold, or any license terms or other restrictions which might apply to content, we necessarily rely on you to understand your rights and act accordingly. For further information, please see our Intellectual Property Policy: https://www.researchgate.net/application.IntellectualPropertyPolicy.html.