This study investigates Arab researchers' attitudes and perceptions toward the use of academic social networks (ASNs), with a sharp topical focus on the ResearchGate (RG) network. From six Arab universities, a sample of 2,991 Arab researchers was invited to participate in the survey. The research instrument was a web-based questionnaire. In total, 315 participants filled out the questionnaire. The study reveals that three quarters of the respondents use ASNs to share publications, and most researchers subscribed to more than one ASN, but RG was the most frequently used one. Academic discipline appears to play a role in defining Arab researchers within RG, as the majority of them were from the pure and applied sciences.

This study investigates researchers’ current practices for managing and sharing research data. An online survey was conducted among researchers from three Arab universities in Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. In total, 337 participants filled out the questionnaire. The study shows that 97% of researchers were responsible for their research data, and 64.4% of researchers shared their data. Contributing to scientific progress and increasing research citations and visibility were the key factors that motivated researchers to share data. However, confidentiality and data misuse were the main concerns among those who were reluctant to share. Finally, some recommendations regarding the improvement of data management and sharing practices are presented.

This study provides an initiative for reflecting from a new perspective on academic libraries in Arab countries and their value to the institutions they serve. Depending on the pivotal role of databases in all educational and research activities, the study had two phases; first, demonstrating return on investment based on total downloads by King Abdulaziz University (KAU) faculty and students, which found that researchers would have to pay more than six times as much for articles if they had to purchase them rather than getting them through library databases; and secondly, measuring the usage of 52 funded research report citations drawn from library databases during the year 2011, which found that the return on investment was negative (– 0.99). The study showed that the proposed model can be applied in many Arab academic libraries.