The science lab may seem like a lonely and impersonal setting, but Ijad Madisch has started a social network website to bridge the gap between researchers.

According to Madisch, who has an M.D. and Ph.D. in virology and an extensive background in computer science, the Internet first operated as a means of facilitating the exchange of information. His website, ResearchGate, is doing just that.

“The pre-existing scientific community was conducted in a vacuum,” Madisch said. “I was encountering problems with my own research during medical school and at a fellowship at Harvard.”

The idea of creating ResearchGate occurred to Madisch when he was participating in the Biomedical Sciences Exchange Program between Hanover University in his native Germany and Harvard University.

“I worked with a friend in Cambridge, and he bought into the idea,” Madisch said. “He is now a fellow co-founder, and we moved the operations back to Berlin, Germany.”

ResearchGate started three years ago, in the beginning of 2008, and since then the social network has gained more than one million users from 200 different countries. Madisch said the scientific community is catching on to the advantages of advanced communications and social media.

“Innovation works off itself, we all know that,” Madisch said. “I want to provide a service for people to bridge gaps in communication and to keep people informed about what their colleagues are doing in their respective fields.”

Similar to other social media like Facebook and LinkedIn, ResearchGate offers tools for people to communicate ideas with each other, such as message boards and group following. Madisch also designed a feature for scientists to post their research publications on their own profiles.

“This won’t replace a library or scientific journal by any means,” Madisch said, “but it will allow people to really follow their peers and receive advice from them.”

ResearchGate’s biggest categories include biology, medicine, computer science, chemistry and physics, but Madisch said the forum isn’t closed to non-physical science fields.

“We have researchers in the social sciences, but the majority are coming from the research in traditional sciences,” Madisch said.

ResearchGate is also being used to survey emerging centers of research.

“What I find interesting is that India is the fourth largest country represented at ResearchGate,” Madisch said. “Many Indians will go abroad for education and will return home to work and study. This also goes to show their growing education system as well.”

China, another emerging country in the scientific community, is ranked a 10 on ResearchGate users, but Madisch predicts more growth.

“The Chinese are sending more and more people to university and abroad, so I can see this demographic growing in the future.”

As a land grant university, N.C. State churns out a significant amount of research, and the campus community has a growing presence on the website.

Matthew Norman, a Ph.D. graduate in atmospheric sciences who now studies at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, uses sites like ResearchGate and LinkedIn to connect with scientists in his field.

“I started using ResearchGate a few years ago, but I don’t use it as much now that LinkedIn has more of a presence online,” Norman said. “In research, I think my favorite part is being able to talk to the groups. There are groups in my fields of study that work well for me. I don’t talk to the people personally, but I think the biggest part is getting a bird’s eye view of the dynamics of the group and what people are saying.”

Michael Schulman, a user of ResearchGate and professor in sociology, said communication between scientists isn’t new, but the way they do it is evolving.

“People have exchanged ideas, papers, and proposals using both traditional methods and talking with each other at conferences,” Schulman said. “Social network technology may speed up the flow of information; I can email a paper in seconds instead of sending it by snail mail, even though collaboration isn’t brand new. ResearchGate may permit people to make new connections beyond networks that have been built on personal contact or institutional affiliations.”