Surveying the relationship between use of the ResearchGate network and social capital of faculty members of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences

This study aims to investigate use ResearchGate network and its relationship with their social capital among the faculty members of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences. This study done using a survey method.All faculty members of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences who were a member of Reasearchgate website, formed the research community and a sample of 208 faculty member of them selected to participate in this study using a random sampling method. The research tool was a questionnaire of Parirokh and Ahmadi study, the reliability of this questionnaire recalculated and coefficient of Cronbach's alpha of it obtained 0/99. The results indicate that the average use of ResearchGate website among the faculty members of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences is 1.88and average components of the partnership, trust,trustworthiness and a sense of belonging and interest items of social capital of faculty members, respectively was %3.30, %3.46, %3.03and %3.52. In total, the average of social capital level of faculty members was34.3%. The results of this study suggest that there is a meaningful relationship between using ResearchGate and the social capital of faculty members of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences.In other words,one can say that most faculty members who are heavy users of ResearchGate website have a high a sense of belonging and interest level of social capital and using this network. About the nature of scientific research that social networks are important. Because their results can help users to better cooperation in the fields of research.