# Academia Reviews **Vendor:** Academia.edu **Category:** [User Research Repositories](https://www.g2.com/categories/user-research-repositories) **Average Rating:** 3.7/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 26 ## About Academia Academia.edu is a platform designed for academics and researchers to share their work, connect with peers, and discover new research. By creating a profile, users can upload papers, monitor their impact, and engage with a global community of scholars. The platform offers both free and premium features to enhance the research experience. Key Features and Functionality: - Profile Creation: Users can set up profiles detailing their affiliations, research interests, and publications. - Document Upload: Share research papers, articles, and other scholarly works with the community. - Search Capabilities: Access a vast repository of academic papers through keyword searches, research interests, and advanced filters. - Networking: Follow other researchers, join discussions, and collaborate on projects. - Analytics: Track the reach and impact of your publications through view counts and reader demographics. - Mentions: Receive notifications when your work is cited or referenced by others. - Readers: Identify who is engaging with your papers and explore their research interests. - Advanced Search: Utilize full-text search and apply filters to find specific documents. - Personal Website: Create a personal academic website powered by your Academia profile. - PDF Packs: Download groups of related papers to streamline research. - Search Alerts: Stay updated with automatic reports on saved search queries. - AI Podcasts: Listen to summaries of academic papers in a podcast format. Primary Value and Solutions: Academia.edu addresses the need for a centralized platform where researchers can disseminate their work, gain visibility, and engage with a global academic community. It simplifies the process of sharing research, tracking its impact, and discovering relevant studies, thereby fostering collaboration and accelerating the advancement of knowledge. ## Academia Reviews ### 1. TOTAL SCAM, DON'T EVER SUBSCRIBE FOR ANY FREE TRIAL. IF YOU DID - DELETE YOUR ACCOUNT!!! **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Vlad O. | Student, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 07, 2025 **What do you like best about Academia?** There is absolutely nothing I like about it. I used it for a week, could barely find any useful material and got scammed. **What do you dislike about Academia?** They scam people, automatically collecting another annual subscription without a proper notice or approval. They send you a shady email with a notification about the upcoming payment in the very bottom of the email which looked as a fine print. **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** The problem is that they are scamming people and rob them. I would like my money back/ ### 2. They are a scam **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Alejandro O. | CEO, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 08, 2024 **What do you like best about Academia?** Absolutely nothing. They are a fraud, they capture credit card data for a one-time purchase and it turns out to be an automatic subscription. From which no reminder or notification arrives. **What do you dislike about Academia?** In 2023, I downloaded a PDF for 63 USD. I never logged in again. A year later, they automatically charged 174 USD to my credit card without notification, without my consent. Their website has no online chat or phone number to make a complaint. Never enter your card details on this platform. They are a fraud. **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** None ### 3. A Way for Scholars to Connect Their Work **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Evita G. | Founder of Curlyvita Blog, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 06, 2019 **What do you like best about Academia?** I like best that you get to connect and share your work, essays and undergrad or graduate school papers with your peers from other schools. I love the fact that in uploading your work, you receive readers. Primarily a list of readers who can read and interact with you and your papers. I have about 86 readers and 14 new friends who have interacted with my papers. It's a great space to share your work with others, and read other papers that are similar to yours. **What do you dislike about Academia?** I currently have a free account, and have noticed that the paid or premium account includes the access to apply for grants, see comments from people who have interacted with your paper or view their profiles. I hope that they will give a few of these perks to the students who have the free accounts. I don't like that there is no visual video function. I think it would be interesting to connect WhatsApp video function to Academia.edu. Just to be able to connect with other scholars via video. Perhaps even creating a group of scholars who are writing about similar subjects and want to connect via video. **Recommendations to others considering Academia:** Read and engage with other writers and scholars from Academia.edu. It's fun, and upload as many of your essays, papers and even dissertation as much as you can. **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am solving the ability to have a place to store and share my best work! I can also look at papers that are similar to mine and network and connect with other scholars. ### 4. Easily Keep Track of Your Writing **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 04, 2019 **What do you like best about Academia?** I love the email alerts when my name is mentioned. **What do you dislike about Academia?** The lack of searchability functioning without being completely signed in and concerns about privacy. **Recommendations to others considering Academia:** It’s a great tool to monitor your reputation and how your work is being used or abused. Every academic who is published needs this! **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** Academia.edu has provided me with opportunity to track who and what uses my writing. This allows me to request royalties or credit and I can use the info to share with others. ### 5. Good for accessing primary source research **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Newspapers | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 21, 2021 **What do you like best about Academia?** As a reporter, my job involves conducting extensive research on a wide range of topics. Often, when I want to learn more about something, I'll look for published academic work to learn from the experts. Academia.edu is a good source for reading and downloading academic research quickly, easily, and freely. **What do you dislike about Academia?** It's easier to find a paper using Google search vs. Academia.edu's search function. **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** Academia.edu calls itself the easiest way to get free research papers, and I agree. I've avoided paying for journal access because I can almost always find the journal article I need on Academia.edu. ### 6. Best platform to be known on the Research world and beyond **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kira S. | Owner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 07, 2020 **What do you like best about Academia?** Possibility of customize your profile and upload all your works, with every detail, to show them to all community and beyond, since that it's possible to find a result as external search engines research. You can also contact privately the researchers, for any question about their works and other. It's a very good chance to meet other professionists of your same scientific area. **What do you dislike about Academia?** Many features are paid and there's only annual payment, while I would to pay monthly. You can't get a DOI for your works uploaded, while in other repository you get DOI. This is an important factor, but doesn't matter a front of a very good dashboard. **Recommendations to others considering Academia:** Academia.edu is a great choice to upload and deposit your works, showing them to the whole academic world, but not only. Take only in consideration that some features, like complete analytics, are paid and there's not monthly payment. **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** I didn't know where I could create my own profile with all my researches associated, complete of any details, and I found all this in Academia.edu website. I came from ResearchGate, which has a terrible user policy. ### 7. Interesting... **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nicole g. | Nicole , Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 21, 2019 **What do you like best about Academia?** I strongly believe this use of a website could be very beneficial for college students. This website would be great for students working on paper or other research projects. It'll be super beneficial to have that extra source to help validate ones ideas. Using this form of devise could be super helpful for difficult classes that entail a lot of research content. **What do you dislike about Academia?** Considering papers are submitted to this website it'll make plagiarism more likely to happen. As it is college students are desperate to pass their class. With this source it'll make it easier for students to just copy and paste which, as we all know is not good. Students who partake in such act could face serious consequences brought to them by the their school or university. **Recommendations to others considering Academia:** I would consider a form that would make it limiting plagiarism possible. I know there are some websites that make it almost impossible for people to copy what is on their website. Perhaps if Academia utilized this tool it could prevent people from plagiarizing which could ensure they do not face any serious consequences with there school which could then lead to higher usage of Academia. Its a chain of action. **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** Problems would probably include plagiarism. This website makes it more likely for plagiarism to take place because it'll be far more convenient. I realized you it'll be super beneficial for students to work with this academia. This website helps students with validating their ideas, organizing their paper or research project, and perhaps even giving students a sense of relief with making it easier to write their papers. ### 8. Was a student in College seeking resources **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Joseph P. | Customer Service Floater, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 19, 2019 **What do you like best about Academia?** It contained many resources and references that were useful at an entry level. It was all set in one place and quite easy to find once you have a membership access to it. There is no charge for using academia.edu unless you want to upgrade, which I have never done. Further, academia.edu puts you in touch with very many articles related to you own areas of interest, making it unnecessary to use other research tools that are not as accessible. Additionally, the awareness of articles in your area of interest allows access to compatible scholars with whom one can establish a collegial relationship. If people post articles that have been copyrighted elsewhere, that is not the fault of academia.edu but rather of the poster. Generally, I find the website extremely useful. It has helped through many headaches and had saved some time. **What do you dislike about Academia?** The CONSTANT emails. After unsubscribing from a few and still receiving emails, I finally went to their preferences page and found that they have an extensive list of all different categories under which to send an email, meaning if you unsubscribe from one in your inbox, it's likely you'll get another under the guise of these 20 or so other categories. Unsubscribed to all. So annoying. **Recommendations to others considering Academia:** Insightful yet very demanding **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** Looking for help with homework problems and found it after quite some time looking into it. Does give a concise answer and helpful process. ### 9. Academia.edu Review **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Management Consulting | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 21, 2019 **What do you like best about Academia?** What I love the best about this site is that I am able to gain access to valuable research reports that give me the exact comprehensive information I need on whatever industry/sector I need to get well-versed in. It is a very collaborative site that allows me to learn at a higher rate for personal and work related business. **What do you dislike about Academia?** What I dislike about this site is that at times I feel that searching for reports/articles that I need is a bit difficult and time-consuming. If the search methods were more fine-tuned then this would be a huge upgrade. **Recommendations to others considering Academia:** Great tool to find awesome research papers and contribute to a larger database. Would recommend for those who struggle with finding solid research. **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** The problems I'm solving are pretty much getting valuable information and research on niche or hard to find industries and being able to have in-depth analysis on them. ### 10. Great resource **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sharon M. | Office Assistant II, Accounting, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 21, 2019 **What do you like best about Academia?** I love that I can find something for every topic I may need! The papers are well researched and written and can be reliable sources. **What do you dislike about Academia?** It can be a little hard to navigate when you first get started using it. It can also be slightly intimidating when thinking of uploading your own work. **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am able to research easier and more confidently than on regular google or bing searches. I feel like there are more works to search through. ### 11. No Mentions of Me Only My Initials **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Juanita S. | Construction Contracts Manager, Higher Education, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 04, 2019 **What do you like best about Academia?** It allows academics to share publications and determine what's new in specific research topics **What do you dislike about Academia?** Academia is well known among academics for falsely making claims the recipient has been mentioned in research articles. After numerous false claims, I canceled my subscription upgrade. **Recommendations to others considering Academia:** If you are looking to see your research listed among others in your field, you will be disappointed to learn you only share the same initials with other researchers and your research was never actually mentioned in other research. **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** Academia has allowed me to enhance my knowledge of broader subjects. ### 12. How to share papers with millions of people **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Stella N. | Compliance Officer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 25, 2019 **What do you like best about Academia?** What i like the most is that you can have access to papers, People, research Interests and Universities in just one setting **What do you dislike about Academia?** What i dislike about Academia is the Basic Search. If you are on a budget, you really cannot do much research without having to pay for the upgrade version **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** I can still find resources and articles that can guide me in looking for terms identified using other academic resources ### 13. Academia.edu is a good resource for academics and students alike **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Zoe G. | Adjunct Assistant Professor, Higher Education, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 04, 2019 **What do you like best about Academia?** I love the resources available on academia.edu. I frequently use it to do research and it does have a wealth of academic papers. **What do you dislike about Academia?** I hate the irrelevant spam emails. Academia.edu constantly emails me about random things that I'm not interested in and that I haven't even read on their site. **Recommendations to others considering Academia:** academia.edu is fine for a basic survey of materials, but it's obviously not at the same level as other academic databases, and it doesn't really function as a social network, so that part seems unnecessary. I also do not like the spam emails. **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** helps me find/connect with other people in the field, helps me discover research topics and get a good idea of public framing. ### 14. Perfect resource for all types of research **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in E-Learning | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 13, 2020 **What do you like best about Academia?** Consolidates a place to search for papers on researchable topics. Easy to navigate the site and find exactly what you need in just a few clicks. **What do you dislike about Academia?** The site needs more resources which will come from more users. **Recommendations to others considering Academia:** It is a great resource for individuals looking for already researched topics. In just a few clicks you can really find a lot of information that has been sorted for you through many filters. **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have been able to do more research on topics that I need a lot of information on. Thanks to academia there are many resources that are relevant to finding studied materials and topics on all sorts of things. ### 15. Great and super helpful **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Eduardo L. | Cs agent, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 21, 2019 **What do you like best about Academia?** academia.edu puts you in touch with very many articles related to you own areas of interest, making it unnecessary to use other research tools that are not as accessible. **What do you dislike about Academia?** They have a brief 'profile' of me which I can't change without paying first. **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** The awareness of articles in your area of interest allows access to compatible scholars with whom one can establish a collegial relationship. If people post articles that have been copyrighted elsewhere, that is not the fault of academia.edu but rather of the poster. Generally, I find the website extremely useful. ### 16. Great social features, amazing articles! **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 19, 2019 **What do you like best about Academia?** I like the number of contributions from the community. You can find research articles on just about anything. It is a great resource for college. **What do you dislike about Academia?** I find the interface to be quite boring. It is simple, which is nice. **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** It has helped with coming up with discussion articles for students. It is a great resource to collect data for debate groups as well. ### 17. Very resourceful **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kenean S. | Student researcher , Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 21, 2019 **What do you like best about Academia?** I've read hundreds of research papers and educational materials on Academia.edu and I always recommend it for my friend and colleagues **What do you dislike about Academia?** Looks like you need to do too much digging to find the right material you want **Recommendations to others considering Academia:** So much useful materials are available at Academia.edu **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** It helped me analyze papers and related materials to my topic ### 18. Academia Review **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Grace F. | Grace Freund Co- Production director, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 21, 2019 **What do you like best about Academia?** Academia is super easy to use and connects me with so many people. **What do you dislike about Academia?** Because there are millions of people on Academia, it can be hard to narrow down what I'm looking for. **Recommendations to others considering Academia:** Use it! It's awesome **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use it to social network with other people of similar interests. It helps me meet new people. ### 19. Academia review **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Real Estate | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 21, 2019 **What do you like best about Academia?** I use academia to find academic papers on mainstream issues i try to research. I have found a wealth of knowledge on teh site. **What do you dislike about Academia?** Site is a bit complicated and sometimes gets redundant in terms of alerts. **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** Academia has helped me from a research perspective. ### 20. Good for sharing, less good for access. **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 21, 2019 **What do you like best about Academia?** This site is very good for getting your research out there, particularly as it pertains to getting your citation count up. It allows you to pretty easily establish an academic web presence. **What do you dislike about Academia?** Paywalls make it difficult to fully take advantage of the platform, and the emails they send based on your browsing history are usually pretty unhelpful. **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** It's a good place to see what people have published, and a good place to get your research out there. ### 21. Most features locked unless you get premium **Rating:** 1.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 21, 2019 **What do you like best about Academia?** Opportunity to connect with other scholars; possibility of sharing papers. **What do you dislike about Academia?** Most features are locked unless you get premium, which renders the service virtually useless to free users. **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** Made articles available online for others to find and use. ### 22. I enjoyed its use for research purposes **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Research | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 19, 2019 **What do you like best about Academia?** I enjoyed the ability to access different researchers’ work and information. It was an alternative source to the common databases. **What do you dislike about Academia?** I didn’t like the prices on it necessarily and how some articles were restricted **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** I’ve written some papers for classes using it as well as used it for debate. I’ve found it very helpful to find new ideas and research. ### 23. Excellent for case studies **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Marketing and Advertising | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 20, 2019 **What do you like best about Academia?** Large number of case studies from different countries. **What do you dislike about Academia?** there is nothing to dislike. the UI is little bland. which can be enhanced. **Recommendations to others considering Academia:** I Like the regular mailers from academia. **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** while doing MBA, i used academia a lot. it helped me to get case studies on different subjects. ### 24. So easy to use! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 21, 2019 **What do you like best about Academia?** Academia is easy to use and very useful! **What do you dislike about Academia?** Nothing comes to mind about dislikes at the moment **Recommendations to others considering Academia:** No Advice comes to mind. **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** I’m solving lots of problems with Academia, lots of benefits have come from it. ### 25. mechanical designer bim specialist **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Architecture & Planning | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 21, 2019 **What do you like best about Academia?** Is a page that enables individuals to keep learning new software online **What do you dislike about Academia?** Probably the price i will love if is adjusted in price **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** the ability of being more productive in sork ### 26. Great resource! **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 21, 2019 **What do you like best about Academia?** Easy to search through resources quickly **What do you dislike about Academia?** doesn't have quite as many different types of sources **What problems is Academia solving and how is that benefiting you?** Research ## Academia Discussions - [Is true that Academia.edu is fake and dangerous?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-true-that-academia-edu-is-fake-and-dangerous) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [View Academia pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/academia/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-13+08%3A53%3A06+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=40d32d00-28bd-46a3-9c23-09c404475cf2&secure%5Btoken%5D=27c2b827932d4357d7cf30fdf1b7746e2c9a8df14ccdd9359cc7facb59b60fb5&format=llm_user) ## Academia Features **Management** - Team Collaboration - Access Control - Data Security **Functionality** - Sentiment Analysis - Tagging - Note Taking - Integrations ## Top Academia Alternatives - [Productboard](https://www.g2.com/products/productboard/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (248 reviews) - [UserVoice](https://www.g2.com/products/uservoice/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (232 reviews) - [Dovetail](https://www.g2.com/products/dovetail-research-pty-ltd-dovetail/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (166 reviews)