Account settings

You can change your password in a few simple steps:

1. Make sure you’re logged into ResearchGate
2. Go to your Account Settings page
3. Scroll down to the Password section and type your current password into the first text box
4. Type your new password into the second and third text boxes
5. Click Save to confirm your changes. 

You can change your account name in a few easy steps:

1. Go to your Profile Settings page
2. Click on the Edit button below Name information
3. Update your name in the box that appears
4. Click Save to confirm your changes.

Note: Due to security reasons you can only change your name three times within a 30-day period.

Have you published under a different name or multiple names? If your author name (the name you've published under) doesn't match your account name exactly, your publications can sometimes be put into a queue while we manually verify authorship. To avoid this, you can either edit your account name or add an alternative author name.

Duplicate profiles are sometimes created because of the various ways you can sign up to ResearchGate. The best way to fix this is to delete whichever profile is less complete. At this time, there’s no possibility to merge duplicate profiles.

To delete your secondary profile:

1. Log in with the email address you used to create your secondary profile
2. Go to your Account Settings page
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page
4. Click the red Delete my Account button. 

If you no longer have access to the old profile, please let us know through the Contact form and provide us with the ResearchGate URLs or email addresses for the duplicate profiles. Also, please specify which link should be kept and which link should be merged.

Please note that we can only transfer the publications to your new account and remove the old one, profile views, followers, followings and questions will not be transferred.

Your ResearchGate profile's URL is generated automatically from the name on your profile, so we cannot manually edit it for you. However, If the original account with your name no longer exists, you can reuse this URL by editing your name.

1. Click the arrow in the top right-hand corner of any ResearchGate page.
2. Click ‘Settings’
3. Click on the ‘Edit’ button underneath ‘Name information’
4. Update your name information in the dialog box
5. Click ‘Save’ to confirm your changes.

Please note: Due to security reasons you can only change your name three times within a 30-day period.

1. Go to your Account Settings page
2. Under Email address, click on Add additional email
3. Type in the email address you want to use as your login
4. Click Save
5. A confirmation email will be sent to your new email address. Click the link in this email to complete the verification process
6. Then go back to your Account Settings page.
7. Click the Set as login button next to the email address you've just added to make it the primary email address for your ResearchGate account.

Don’t forget to use this new email address when you next log in to ResearchGate. 

Deleting your ResearchGate account is permanent and cannot be undone. Before deleting your account, please keep in mind:

• You can change your account name, email address, and affiliation without having to delete your account
• You can manage your email notifications in Account Settings
• You can block researchers from contacting you on ResearchGate.

Still have questions? Your Privacy Settings and Notification Settings may provide the answers you’re looking for, otherwise, RG Community Support is here to help. 

If you decide to delete your account, here’s how to do it:

1. Go to your Account Settings page
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page
3. Click the red Delete my Account button.

If you change your mind about leaving ResearchGate, you can sign up again at any time. To do this, just visit researchgate.net and click Join for free.

Note: Because of the speed at which search engines index web pages, it may take some time before your public profile is removed from search results once you delete your account.