Research Impact
Librarian
Your Researcher Identity
Taking charge of and managing your researcher identify is important to distinguish you and your work from other researchers. It allows you to track the impact of your research, increase the visibility of your work, and connect all of your contributions over time. Your researcher identity is formed by combining all of your research outputs (e.g., articles, books, datasets, conference proceedings, blog posts, etc) and its impact that may be aligned with or act as an author profile.
As a researcher, it is critical to have control in managing your researcher identity. Your researcher identifier can:
- Uniquely distinguish your name (author disambiguation)
- Improve the discoverability of your work
- Correctly accredit your work
- Collate all your research activities and outputs
- Collect and analyze your impact and metrics
- Promote your research
- Find collaborators
- Streamline your research workflow
Researcher Identifiers
What is it
As a researcher, it is important to uniquely attach your identity to your scholarly outputs and unambiguously associate your publications, funding, and other information to you. As an open, non-profit, interdisciplinary, and community-driven effort, ORCID iD helps you distinguish you from other researchers and ensure your work is correctly accredited to you. An ORCID iD is a unique persistent and interoperable 16-digit researcher identifier associated with you (much like an SSN number) throughout your academic and professional career. The term ORCID also refers to the registry in which the unique persistent identifiers are maintained.
Increasingly, ORCID is integrated into the workflows for individuals, institutions, funders, and systems. Beginning in 2020, any individual who is supported by research training, fellowships, research education, and career development awards from NIH, AHRQ, and CDC will be required to have an ORCID. Publishers are also increasingly requiring ORCID as part of the manuscript submission process.
ORCID is not a social media platform, a profile system, an online CV, or a content repository. However, it provides a transparent method of linking ORCID to research activities and outputs in key workflows that fulfill these functions such as manuscript submissions, grant applications, researcher profiles, and patent applications.
While ORCID does not aggregate citation data, it captures a wide range of traditional and non-traditional research outputs such as journal articles, conference publications, books, datasets, patents, websites, methodology or technique, etc. You can authorize CrossRef and DataCite in your ORCID account to automatically receive updates to your profile when you publish with your ORCID. Authorize Stanford University as an alternative sign-in to use your SUNet credentials. Link other identifiers, such as Google Scholar, Scopus Author ID, and Publons to your ORCID profile to increase the visibility of your work. For more information, visit the ORCID guide.
How can you use it?
Link your ORCID iD or generate a QR code for your resume, conference poster, webpage, social media, and email signature to direct people to your works.
You can also use ORCID to connect a variety of profile systems and research related tools, such as SciENcv profile system and Dryad data repository. For more information, visit Use ORCID.
Claim your ORCID by registering at https://orcid.org/login with your Stanford credentials. Select "Institutional account" and search for "Stanford University".
There are three ways to sign-in into your ORCID:
- Login to ORCID with your existing ORCID credentials
- Stanford is an ORCID member and allows you to login to your ORCID account with your Stanford username and password (SUNet). Select “Institutional account” on the login screen to sign in with your SUNet.
- You can use your Google or Facebook account as an alternative sign in.
Authorize Stanford University as a trusted organization to read, and/or add and update your ORCID record. Visit https://authorize.stanford.edu/orcid/ and follow the steps.
You can access an ORCID record as a stand-alone public profile in ORCID's database, and embedded in systems and tools for many databases and workflows.
Add information about yourself to your ORCID record
Build your ORCID record by adding information about yourself and connecting your ids. Personal information you can add to your ORCID record include:
- Your name and other versions of your name
- The country where you perform your research
- Keywords related to you and your research
- Links to websites related to you and your research (e.g. faculty profile webpage, LinkedIn, Twitter)
- Email addresses you use or have previously used
- Other researcher identifiers (e.g. ResearcherID, Publons, Scopus Author ID)
- A brief biography
Add works to your ORCID record
There are several ways you can add works to your record:
- Set-up auto-updates with CrossRef and DataCite. If you include your ORCID iD when you submit a work for publication, Crossref and DataCite publisher members index metadata about the work. You can authorize Crossref and DataCite to automatically update your record when the content is registered and has a DOI.
- Add works by direct import from other systems. Select "Search & link" in the drop down menu to import links to your publications and other works from different databases and systems. This is the recommended process because it reduces errors and enables a reliable connection between your ORCID iD and your work.
- Add works with a DOI, PMID, or ArXiv id.
- Import and export works via BibTeX. If you have existing bibliographies from your Google Scholar profile or reference management software (e.g., Zotero, EndNote), you export the data in a BibTeX (.bib) file and import it into your ORCID record. BibTeX is a platform-independent, plain-text format used for bibliographic citations.
- Add works manually.
In addition to profile systems like SciENcv, ORCID also integrates with a variety of other research-related tools giving you essentially a single sign and enabling you to share information about your contributions throughout your research toolchain. Below we've highlighted some tools that connect with ORCID that are widely used at Stanford Medicine.
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Dryad, the open data repository, requires ORCID iDs for login. Once you've logged in and published a dataset through Dryad, you can be added to your ORCID profile as a work. Dryad also allows you to add ORCID iDs for co-authors. |
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Overleaf, the collaborative LaTeX editor allows you to login with your ORCID iD and connect your ORCID to your current account. Once your account is linked, your ORCID iD will be included when you submit work to participating publishers. |
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Protocols.io is a repository for recording and sharing up-to-date research methods and protocols. Connecting your ORCID iD with your account allows protocols.io to post information about your published protocols onto the "Works" section of your ORCID record. |
Other Researcher Identifiers
There are various types of sites and services that are important in fostering your visibility. Use the comparison chart below to find the appropriate identifier for you. The Lane Medical Library recommends you claim an ORCID iD first before considering other identifiers.
|
Feature |
Google Scholar |
Scopus Author ID |
Publons |
|
Persistent ID |
- |
+ |
+ |
|
User profile |
+ |
+ |
+ |
|
Publication list |
+ |
+ |
+ |
|
Citation metrics |
+ |
+ |
+ |
|
User privacy controls |
+ |
- |
+ |
|
Facilitates networking |
+ |
- |
+ |
|
Add works manually |
+ |
- |
+ |
|
Add works automatically |
+ |
+ |
+ |
|
Integration |
- |
ORCID |
ORCID Google Scholar |
What is it
Google Scholar is a free tool you can set up using an email. It allows your profile to show up in the Google Scholar results when someone searches your name. Google uses a proprietary statistical model to try to tell different authors apart, so ensure you check that articles attached to your profile are really yours. One of the benefits of having a Google Scholar profile is its ability to aggregate multiple sources to generate a citation report on your impact. You can also create a Google Scholar profile for a group or organization.
Where can you find it
Google Scholar profiles can be accessed via https://scholar.google.com/ by searching for an author's name. Suggested user profiles will be displayed at the top of the results.
How can you get one
There are two ways to create and sign into your Google Scholar profile:
- Go to https://scholar.google.com/ and click "sign-in" in the upper right corner. Sign-in using your SUNet.
- Sign-in with an existing Gmail account or create an account with your Gmail.
Click "My Profile" in the upper left corner to set up your account information.
Adding works to your Google Scholar record
Google Scholar will most likely have indexed your work. It will provide you with groups of articles its algorithm believes belong to you. Select any group that is your work. If you don't see your work in a group, click "Search articles" and add your articles one at a time.
Alternatively, you can add missing articles manually by selecting the "+" button in the grey toolbar above your listed articles.
What is it
Scopus Author ID is automatically created when an author has one or more publications indexed by the Scopus database from Elsevier. Scopus will link publications to the same profile based on affiliation and name. However, if the affiliation changes, the form of the name is different, or subject area varies, additional profiles for the same individual may be created. If you have more than one profile in Scopus, it is necessary to merge the profiles by contacting the Scopus team. Scopus Author ID also integrates with ORCID to direct users to both profiles.
Where can you find it
Scopus Author ID can be found in the Scopus database. Search by author or key terms to locate author profiles.
How can you get one
It is automatically generated in Scopus when authors have more than two publications. If you have more than one Scopus Author ID, it is important to send a request to Scopus to merge the IDs.
Adding works to your Scopus Author record
Publications indexed in Scopus will be automatically added to your Scopus Author profile. Publications indexed in Scopus can also be added by request, if not linked automatically by its algorithm.
What is it
Formerly ResearcherID, Publons is also a free tool as part of the suite of products offered by Clarivate Analytics who provides Web of Science and EndNote. It provides publication listings and citation metrics for publications indexed in Web of Science, as well as tracking of peer review work. Recently, Web of Science introduced a beta author search that algorithmically generates author records for authors who have one or more publications indexed in the database. You can claim a Web of Science author profile by registering with Publons. Based on affiliation, name variation, and subject areas, more than one profile may be generated for an author. Contact Web of Science to merge profiles. Like Scopus Author ID, Publons also integrates with ORCID. All former ResearcherID accounts are migrated to Publons and can be accessed via here.
Where can you find it
Click on WoS search results to view abstract and author profile or use “author search”
How can you get one
Register to get an ID https://publons.com/account/register/ Can use a single login for Publons, EndNote, and Web of Science Integrated with ORCID
Adding works to your Publons record