Academic Social Networking (ASN) tools to enhance research out-puts of LIS fraternity in India: A Comparative Analysis between ResearchGate, Academia.edu and Google

Academic Social Networking tools like Google Scholar, Academia.eduand ResearchGate are getting wider acceptance amongst library and information science professionals.These tools are assisting them in improving their research and development activities, and they are providing platforms for collaborations and showcasing their academic works to their stakeholders.ASNs' tools help create individuals' profiles, enabling researchers to find their collaborators and measure their research impact and citation metrics.This study aims to understand usability, awareness and acceptance of Academic Social Networking (ASN) tools amongst the library and information science fraternity in India.For this purpose, an online survey was conducted and responses were collected from various stakeholders of the LIS communities, those involved in facilitating research and development.The scholar has reached out to 500 community members via emails and a total 172 numbers of responses were collected and this survey has recorded a 34.4 % response rate.A sample random sampling procedure was used to gather feedback from respondents.