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COBRA: Managing Your Scholarly Identity

This guide focuses on managing your academic presence, where we delve into the nuances of cultivating a distinguished scholarly persona.

What are Author IDs?

Author IDs are unique identifiers that help distinguish one researcher from another, especially those that have similar names. Scholarly profile tools, like the ones listed below, will assign you with a unique ID that you can link to in your CV or in other important documentation.

By signing up for these accounts you have more control over how these resources present your research and ensure that all of your research is accredited to your profile.

Looking for tips on what to include in your Author IDs? This handout has suggestions.

ORCiD

What is an ORCiD?

ORCiD (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher.

An ORCiD can be particularly useful if you have a common name, changed your name, or do not consistently use the same name format when publishing. Other reasons to have an ORCiD

  • Many publishers use ORCiD, reducing the need to keep track of multiple identifiers for different platforms. 
  • Your ORCiD can connect with other scholarly ID systems, such as Web of Science and Scopus.
  • Some funders and publishers now require you to have an ORCiD to submit.

What Types of Professional Activities Does ORCiD Track?

  • Journal articles
  • Presentations
  • Data sets
  • Books
  • Encyclopedia entries
  • Websites
  • Supervised student projects
  • Conference papers
  • Lectures/speeches

What About Peer Reviews?

If you agree for a journal to claim you as a peer reviewer publicly, the number of reviews you complete will show up on your ORCiD.

Learn More and Sign Up

Adding Works to Your ORCiD Profile

ORCiD offers researchers multiple options for adding works to their profile, including by:

  • Using the Search & Link from CrossRef or Scopus
  • Importing BibTeX
  • Adding individually via DOI or manually

.... Or Opt into Auto-Updates

Make it even easier to keep your ORCiD profile up to date with Auto-Update. Here's how this tool works:

  • The publisher collects the author‚s ORCID iD during the publishing process (usually during manuscript submission)
  • The publisher includes the iD in the metadata when registering a DOI for the publication
  • The author receives an email from the DOI registry (currently Crossref) asking permission to update their record OR the author creates a DataCite profile and links it to their ORCID record
  • The author grants Crossref or DataCite permission to update their ORCID record (they only have to do this once)
  • Every time Crossref or DataCite register a DOI that includes the author‚s ORCID iD they automatically update their record

Make your ORCID visible: help other researchers easily refer to your scholar portfolio by linking to your ORCID in your email signature, your faculty profile, business cards, research posters, and anywhere else you can think of to promote information sharing and networking

Google Scholar Profiles

What are Google Scholar Author Profiles?

Google Scholar Author Profiles provide a simple way for authors to showcase their academic publications. You can check who is citing your articles, graph citations over time, and compute several citation metrics.

Google scholar does not automatically generate an author profile, however they do automatically index an author's publications. By creating an account you can allow your profile to show up in Google Scholar's search results and group your articles under your profile to more easily distinguish yourself from other authors with the same name.

What Types of Publications Are Included?

  • Peer-reviewed journals
  • Theses and dissertations
  • Books
  • Abstracts
  • Court opinions

What About Peer Reviews?

At this time, Google Scholar does not have the option to add completed peer review assignments to your profile

How Do I Know if I Have Claimed My Profile?

If you find one of your articles in Google Scholar, see if your author name is a link. If it isn't, you probably haven't claimed your profile. This linked article has two authors who have claimed their profiles (Fagan and Price) and two who haven't (Ostermiller and Sapp).

Learn More and Sign Up

Adding Publications to Your Author Profile

When you create your account Google Scholar will provide you a list of articles that it believes belongs to you. Review this list and check all the articles that you want added to your profile. Finish your profile by searching for more articles to add by your name, article title, etc. to find articles not in the initial list.

Google Scholar does not index everything, if there is anything missing from your profile you can also manually add in those citations.

Help & Troubleshooting

.... Or Opt into Auto-Updates

Once you have a Google Scholar profile you can opt-in to have your profile automatically updated. Google Scholar identifies and adds new citations it believes are yours to your profile as new items are published. You will still want to review your profile periodically to catch any missed articles or remove misattributed articles if you have a common name.

Alternatively, researchers can elect for email alerts when a new publication is detected and approve articles before they are added to your profile.

Correcting your Google Scholar Profile

Google Scholar allows you to manage articles added to your profile. You can easily remove any articles that do not belong to you or that you do not wish to show on your profile.

To do so, select the article you would like to remove from your profile page and select delete.

Take further advantage of Google Scholar by using some of the additional tools below.

We suggest you sign up for your Google Scholar account using a personal gmail account. Not only is this one less account to manage if you already use gmail, but you can also take it with you from institution to institution. You can still add your institutional email as an additional email address.

ResearcherID

What is a ResearcherID?

This unique identifier connects an author to their publications across the Web of Science ecosystem (e.g., Web of Science, Publons, and InCites) and disambiguates researchers across Web of Science products. 

Note: ResearcherIDs, aka Web of Science Researcher profiles, can be created for free -- a Web of Science subscription is not required. However, some WoS Researcher Profile Tools won't be available to non-subscribers.

Already have an account with EndNote Online, Web of Science or Publons? You shouldn't need to create a new account. Sign into your existing account and click on Profile > 'CREATE' from the side navigation.

What Types of Publications Does ResearcherID Track?

  • Journal/conference publications

  • Book chapters

  • Preprints

At this time, ResearcherID profiles do not include published books or patents. 

What About Peer Reviews?

If you agree that a Clarviate indexed journal can claim you as a peer reviewer publicly, the number of reviews you complete will show up on your ResearcherID profile. If you had previously signed up for a Publons account, Clarviate has incorporated those reviews into its platform.

Adding Publications to Your ResearcherID

Researchers have several options for adding publications

  • Allowing Web of Science to query its database using your name and email addresses to create a list of suggested publications
  • Manually adding citations using DOI or title
  • Uploading your publication history in a RIS, CSV or BibText file
  • Syncing your ORCiD to your ResearcherID

Help & Troubleshooting

... Or Rely on Automatic Updates

Once an author has claimed at least one Web of Science Core Collection publication for their profile, they can take advantage of automatic updates.

WoS does this by comparing the similarity of publications and the associated authors. That means some publications might not be deemed similar enough and won't be added automatically, so you will still need to check your profile periodically.

Researchers can opt out of Automatic Updates by going to Web of Science Researcher Profile Settings.

Correcting Your ResearcherID profile

WoS allows authors to remove publications on their own.

To do so, log into their ResearcherID profile. Then navigate to the My publication records page.

Find the publication and click on ‘delete’,  Confirm deletion.when prompted.

Scopus Author Profiles

What are Scopus Author Profiles?

Scopus Author Profiles help tell a more accurate and complete story about the output and influence of researchers and institutions. The database creates an Author Profile automatically when two or more articles are linked to one name. 

Scopus is leaning into the idea of researcher discovery, using these profiles to identify relevant researchers and quickly build a view of the individuals contributing to a particular field. 

Their aim is enabling researchers to quickly find collaborators for a project or transition easily into a research agenda. If you are open to collaborating with new partners, spend time ensuring your Scopus profile is accurate.

What Types of Publications Are Included?

  • Peer-reviewed journals
  • Trade journals
  • Articles in Press
  • Conference papers and presentations
  • Books

What About Peer Reviews?

At this time, your peer reviewing assignments aren't connected to your Scopus Author Profile.

Updating Scopus Author Profiles

Author profiles are updated daily as content is added to Scopus from thousands of publishers. Scopus matches articles to existing author profiles based on name, email, affiliation, subject area, citations and co-authors.

If you have changed institutions, it's imperative that you update your profile in Scopus. Otherwise, Scopus will create a second author profile based on the new email address and new institutional affiliation.

Review the Correcting Your Profile tab to see how to suggest changes to your profile, including adding a new institutional affiliation.

Correcting your Scopus Author Profile

Corrections to an author profile require a free Scopus account. Once logged in, use the Scopus Author Feedback Wizard to request changes such as:

  • Set a preferred name

  • Merge duplicate profiles

  • Add and remove documents

  • Update your institutional affiliation