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Tracking Research Impact

What is a Researcher Profile?

What is a Researcher Profile?

  • Online profile used to keep track of your research outputs (e.g. articles, books, conference presentations, patents, data, etc.)
  • A unique and persistent identifier that can distinguish your work from others publishing under a similar name. 
  • Designed for both personal use and to be shared with other researchers in online communities. 

Why Should I Establish Researcher Profiles?

1) Distinguish Your Work

  • Separate yourself from similarly named authors. 
  • Consolidate name variations used throughout your career.

2) Meet Publication Requirements

  • Include your identifiers in submissions to popular journals, databases, and funding agencies. 

3) Demonstrate Your Research Impact

  • Having well-managed and complete profiles makes it easier to calculate a variety of metrics (e.g. h-index, citations, altmetrics, collaboration networks, etc.)

4) Build Your Professional Network

  • Connect with a global community network of researchers.
  • Discover other researchers with similar research interests.
  • Explore opportunities for future collaborations.

Getting Started with Research Profiles?

There are many researcher profiles to choose from. It's recommended to have and maintain the following profiles:

  1. ORCID
  2. Google Scholar
  3. Scopus Author ID

Having a variety of profiles gives you the best coverage for all your needs. ORCiD is indispensable for modern researchers, and, rather being dependent on a particular database, allows you to compile your entire collection of outputs into a single locations. The others profiles you maintain will largely depend on which best databases represent your discipline, and each have their pros and cons. 

Click on the tabs above to learn more. 

Scopus Author ID allows you to track your publications indexed in the Scopus database. Having a Scopus Author ID allows you to easily see a list of your publications and view citation metrics such as h-index measures, citation counts, publications and co-authors. 

Scopus Author ID is automatically generated for you after your research output is indexed by Scopus, and cannot be created otherwise.

Tips for using your Scopus Author ID:

  • Register for a Scopus account using your university email. 
  • Find your profile in Scopus by searching for your name or one of your indexed publications and go to your Author Details page (accessed by clicking on your name when it appears in a search results list, a source document details page, or a document details page).
  • If any corrections are required, use the Author Feedback Wizard to send a request.
  • Add name variations and merge profiles if necessary. 
  • Scopus Author ID can be linked to ORCID so publications are automatically imported to your ORCID.
  • Set up citation alerts. 
  • Track your citation metrics - remembering that these will only reflect outputs and citations indexed in Scopus. 

Find your profile in Scopus. 

ORCID provides a persistent identifier that is uniquely yours. It will help you distinguish your work from others with similar names to yours, and ensures your research outputs and activities are correctly attributed to you. 

Tips for using your ORCID iD:

  • Include it your email signature, in submissions, or other trusted systems.
  • Add other versions of your name and your current affiliation. 
  • Authorise CrossRef to automatically keep your record up-to-date.
  • Link to other systems to add other identifiers such as Scopus Author ID or ResearcherID. 
  • Connect to your research outputs - use the "Search and Link" tool to pull records from major databases and add any missing publications manually.

Registering for an ORCID iD only takes one minute. 

Google Scholar is one of the most ubiquitous profiles available. Built into Google Scholar's massive database, when you create an account, Google will automatically search for publications it believes to be yours. You can verify those, and add citations that Google may have missed. 

Tips for using your Google Scholar profile:

  • Always use a personal Google account for creating your profile. You can add your institutional address to your profile to verify your affiliation.
  • Make sure your profile is public so people can search for you and find your profile. 
  • Check your citation metrics here. It's likely your Google Scholar will have the most complete set of your research outputs, and therefore the citation metrics available through Google Scholar will be more accurate than in other profiles. 
  • Follow yourself to receive updates about your profile, such as when you are cited.

Create your Google Scholar by logging in. Be sure to use a personal Google account. 

ResearcherID and Publons are both researcher profiles owned by Clarivate (Web of Science). ResearcherID will only reflect the publications that are indexed in Web of Science, whereas Publons allows you to bring in research outputs from beyond. You can also add evidence of other research activity to your Publons profile, such as any peer review. 

Tips for using your ReseacherID and Publons accounts:

  • You can login to Web of Science to claim your ResearcherID. If you also have a Publons account, the two can be linked and when you update one it will reflect on the other.
  • Authorise ORCID integration. 
  • Add your peer review activity.
  • Improve your author record with the feedback interface
  • Track your citation metrics - remembering that these will only reflect outputs and citations indexed in Web of Science. 
  • Publications can be imported into Publons using the following ways; from Web of Science, from ORCID, by identifier (e.g. title or DOI, by file upload (RIS, CSV, or BIBTEX).

Claim your ResearcherID and create your Publons

Frequently Asked Questions

Search a citation database for your work. For example, Scopus provides the following tools to find out who is citing you.

1. Search for your work in Scopus

2. Find the "Cited By" box on the right side of the page.

3. Check not only the number of citations received, but also who has cite you. Have you been cited by someone important in your field? This can carry more weight than pure quantitative data. 

4. Set up a citation alert for this piece of research, or, in your profile set up an author citation alert. Never miss a new citation!

Many citation databases allow you to set up citation alerts - for individual articles, or for an entire author. 

You will be notified as soon as a new citation is added to the database. 

1. Run a keyword search in a citation database. Remember to use best-practice search techniques (e.g. Environment AND "rooftop gardens" will provide better results than Environmental benefits of rooftop gardens in cities)

2. Sort the search result by number of citations. 

The most highly cited work will be at the top of your search results.

Remember citations accrue over time, so this will not help you find recent research. Also remember that controversial research also receives a high number of citations, so it's important to understand the context of citations. You can try using scite.ai to help you understand the context of citations (e.g. positive or negative). 

Using Web of Science:

1. Go to the Web of Science database and carry out an "organization-enhanced" search for "American University of Sharjah"

2.  From the results list, select a Web of Science "category" of interest eg. Mathematics and next, "refine"

3.  You can next "analyze results" or "create a citation report" 

Using Scopus:

1. Go to Scopus and carry out an "affiliations" search for "American University of Sharjah"

2. From the results list, click on "documents" link

3.  You can next "Analyze Search Results" by author, source or subject areas

Using Web of Science:

1.  Go to the Web of Science database and search the Author index

2. From your list of publications, select Create Citation Report

3. A Citation Report will contain information on the number of publications, the number of times these publications are cited, and your h-index

Using Scopus

1.  Go to the Scopus database and search the Author index

2.  Select the correct author to view author details and identify latest corresponding h-index

Using Google Scholar

1. Open Google Scholar

2. Once you searched for and added your publications to your profile, go to "my citations"

Useful graphs showing trends in citations over time are provided along with your h-index.