Calculate Your Academic Footprint: Author Profiles

It is important for works to be correctly attributed to their author. Unfortunately, name ambiguity can sometimes make this challenging!

Name variants are a key example of name ambiguity and include:

• More than one author having the same name
• Similar spelling of name
• Incorrect name order
• Use or misuse of middle initial
• Different version of name used throughout career (name change, maiden name, married name, etc)

Researcher identification systems offer stable author identifiers, and provide one way that author name ambiguity can be proactively decreased. Common researcher identification systems include: ORCID, Scopus Author Identifier, ResearcherID, and Google Scholar Citation Profiles.

¹ Smalheiser, N. R., & Torvik, V. I. (2009). Author name disambiguation. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 43(1), 1-43. 

A variety of free options allow you to create and maintain a stable researcher profile:

ORCID

ORCID enables you to obtain a unique 16 digit identification number that can be used to tie you to your work.  ORCID enables communication across multiple platforms, including Scopus and Web of Science's ResearcherID.

For more information, watch the following video: A Quick Tour of the ORCID Record from ORCID on Vimeo (3:02).

Scopus Author Identifier

The Scopus Author Identifier creates an Author Profile with an associated Author Identifier, and associates you with the publications that you have authored.  This tool allows you to request changes when you notice inaccuracies in your Author Profile.  Scopus also provides the Scopus2Orcid option as a way to link your Author Identifier information with your ORCID identification number.

For more information on how to complete this process, see the Scopus guide to importing author details to ORCID.

Web of Science ResearcherID

Use the Web of Science ResearcherID to connect your work from across the Web of Science. ResearcherIDs are now hosted by Publons. Create a Publons profile to receive your ResearcherID, and to document your publication history, track citation counts, and calculate your h-index. You can also link your ORCID identification number to your Publons profile.

To learn more about Publons profiles, see the following video  from Publons.com (2:19).

Google Scholar Citations Profile

Google Scholar Citations Profile allows you to create a profile, search Google Scholar for articles you have published, and calculate your h-index based on the list of publications you create and vet.

Troubleshooting Tips

Doing an author search in Google Scholar can sometimes be a challenge!  

• If you create a profile via Google Scholar Citations, Google Scholar will automatically narrow down potential article results for you. This may save time when attempting to locate your articles, but be aware that doing the search yourself is the only way to ensure that all of your articles are included. 
• Keep in mind that even when creating a Google Scholar Citations Profile, there is the chance that Google Scholar may miss a few of your articles.

¹ Alakangas, S. & Warburton, J. Research impact: h-index. The University of Melbourne. Retrieved from http://unimelb.libguides.com/c.php?g=402744&p=2740739 

Having more than one researcher profile is usually a good idea.

Why?

The reality is that different databases:

• Use different identification numbers for the same author
• Have different publications and different citing articles within them

This creates the opportunity for missed citations!

Missed citations can negatively impact the value of your h-index.