Twenty-eight year old scientist and CEO M.D., Ijad Madisch launched ResearchGATE 18 months ago in hopes to help scientists connect and collaborate — and so far that’s exactly what’s been happening.

Scientists from around the world are using the site to find research partners and other scientists who might be conducting similar types of work. Madisch started the website because he felt that scientists needed more avenues for communication. Right now, multiple scientists may be researching the same thing for months and won’t even know about each other’s successes or failures. With ResearchGATE, Madisch wants to give scientists an opportunity to reach out to their peers and speed the process of scientific discovery and sharing.

Since its launch in May 2008, ResearchGATE has grown into a large network of scientists and doctors collaborating online. Currently, the site has a user base of 180,000 researchers from 196 different countries. More than 60,000 papers and documents have been uploaded to the site and there have been 1,100 groups formed around different subject matters. What used to take users two weeks of research, now takes only about a day or two.

The site uses semantic search technology and scours external medical databases as well regular search engines. Another tool within the site is the “abstract” search capability. Scientists not only search for keywords but they can paste a part of their research paper and find results and researchers doing similar work that way. The site is essentially a facebook/LinkedIn combination designed to eliminate repetitive efforts in scientific research.

ResearchGATE is continually unveiling new capabilities. Some recent applications include a personal blogging function so members can share news, thoughts and research results. Users are offered the choice between publishing just within their network or to a greater audience through their public profile. They can also submit entries to ResearchBLOG , the new public channel of the ResearchGATE scientific community. The highest quality posts from individual members are aggregated here to provide a reputable source for science news, commentary, research, and innovation from all fields of enquiry.

While individual blog entries don’t require a specific format, ResearchGATE has introduced a new template for publishing research results called microarticles. These articles, written by ResearchGATE members, provide a summary of a published, peer-reviewed article, highlighting key concepts and findings in just 300 characters. Every member is invited to produce such an article on a paper written by him/herself or by friends and colleagues. Similar to blog entries, microarticles are published via the member’s profile and can be submitted to ResearchBLOG .

“With our new short article system, we want to increase the speed in which research results are spread within the scientific community“, said ResearchGATE’s co-founder Ijad Madisch. To facilitate access to the source of the information contained, every microarticle refers to a publication found either in ResearchGATE’s database, linked via an external URL or manually entered by the author. Via their newsfeed, members of the academic networking platform choose to stay informed on blog entries and microarticles posted by their peers. They can also decide to constantly follow their favorite authors and blogs.

A self-archiving tool recently introduced allows members to create full-text libraries within their personal profiles. In discussion groups dedicated to certain topics or projects, members can use a smart file and data sharing tool to co-edit documents. Institutions and associations can benefit from setting up a branded Subcommunity, which is a password-protected part within the ResearchGATE platform that is open only to subscriber’s members. The semantic search engine delivers particularly accurate results when searching ResearchGATE’s database of more than 30 million abstracts and articles. In addition, when users upload their papers, ResearchGATE will use semantic matching not only to suggest related literature but also to recommend similar groups and individuals with whom the users may wish to network.

“ResearchGATE has rapidly become far more than just a social network," says co-founder and CEO Ijad Madisch, an award-winning virologist. "Our members manage all of their professional communication within the platform. They use it as a starting point for their research; they archive, review, rate, and recommend papers, discuss research findings and work together on their projects and publications. It is a new gateway to the world of science."

Several research institutes and university departments have partnered with ResearchGATE to connect their members and to foster peer-to-peer exchange. The platform is free of charge to members. Revenue streams are generated through a job board for science and higher education, affiliate marketing projects for biotech lab suppliers and scientific events as well as licensing agreements for their software with intranet communication systems.

Madisch is also about to announce a partnership with a Boston-based nonprofit organization called SeedingLabs. SeedingLabs helps hospitals in underdeveloped countries by supplying them with used lab equipment. Through the partnership with ResearchGATE, doctors who don’t typically have easy access to resources will be able to learn how to use the new equipment and collaborate with scientists using ResearchGATE as a communications portal.

ResearchGATE is currently based in Boston, MA and Berlin, Germany. It has garnered widespread coverage in the international press, on blogs and discussion groups. The platform’s core team consists of several active life scientists, and its commitment to high-level research is reflected through a scientific advisory network of more than 140 leading international scientists.