Library Guides

Researcher profiles

This guide explains the different kinds of profiles for researchers

Key messages

  • Having a public-facing research profile is a part of academic life
  • A current and well-populated profile distinguishes a researcher and their work 
  • All researchers should have an ORCiD and allow institutions and publishers to write to it 
  • Consideration should be given to the ongoing commitment before setting up and managing multiple profiles 

When creating your profile

  1. Use the tools that are most suitable to you and your discipline
  2. Maintain a few profiles well rather than many poorly
  3. Go where your audience is

Profiles not aligned to a publisher or institution

Researcher initiated

ORCiD An ORCiD ID is a persistent digital identifier for an individual researcher. It is a way to disambiguate researchers with similar names and is being increasingly used by publishers and databases. At the minimum, researchers should make public their current employer. Researchers have control over their own ORCiD and what is publicly displayed.

Google Scholar is a freely searchable database of scholarly work that includes the option of setting up a profile that lists works and provides some metrics including an h-index. The profile is not intended to be an author identifier, requires a verified institutional email to be public and has semi-automatic updates.    

Automatically defined

Dimensions is a searchable platform that has a public and a subscription interface. The scope of the database includes open access and subscription publications. It uses algorithms to connect authors and their works to create a researcher profile. The profile uses sources such as publicly facing ORCiDs with institutional affiliations. The result can be analysed further with the analytical views feature.    

Profiles linked to an institution

Many institutions have modules that integrate with research management systems to display a templated researcher profile on the institutional website. These are linked to employment at that institution.  

A profile page is a calling card for potential funding partners, research collaborators, postgraduate students, media, and others. It is a powerful tool for sharing valuable information about you and your research. 

Profiles provided by a publisher/indexer

Automatically defined

Scopus Author Identifier. Scopus authors are assigned a unique identifier for disambiguation. When an author has published several works a profile is created and is available to Scopus subscribers. The profile matching is based on algorithms and can be amended by authors. Scopus enables the populating of an ORCiD profile with verified publication data. A Scopus profile lists indexed publications and metrics and can be exported to SciVal for analysis or used in a report.   

Researcher initiated

SSRN (Social Science Research Network), like Scopus, is owned by Elsevier. It is an open access preprint community. Researchers can use the Author Home Page for contact information, publication lists and download counts. The Author Profile page is publicly accessible.

ReseacherID on Publons uses information from the Web of Science (which is owned by Clarivate Analytics) and other sources to generate a publicly accessible profile. It can include publications, work as a peer reviewer and editor and metrics from the Web of Science. The researcher creates and maintain it themselves.  

Kudos Pro is a database specifically designed to increase the reach and impact of research. Free 60 day trial access. It provides an attractive platform to promote and monitor metrics and the platform includes a dashboard that tracks and collates views. Partners with Clarivate and Altmetrics.

Academic networks with researcher profiles

Any copies of research you choose to upload must comply with copyright law and with any licensing arrangements you have with your publishers, in some cases you may need to seek permission.

Personal research profiles

Researcher initiated

Developing and maintaining a personal website means that it is not associated with an institution or a publisher. It offers control of the information and how it is displayed. However, the information can’t be authenticated (as ORCiD does) and it takes an investment of time to keep it updated.  

Here are some ideas: 

Further information

Library LibGuides

Research Impact Challenge

  • Research Impact Challenge -This guide contains 10 activities to help you as a researcher better understand and manage your online scholarly presence, as well as the impact and reach of your research. 

Using ORCID at Victoria

ORCiD (Open Researcher & Contributor ID) is a non-profit, open-source digital author identifier. It helps solve name ambiguity in research and scholarly communications by creating a central registry of unique identifiers for individual researchers.

  • It is free to get an ORCiD, and you are able to manage your own record of qualifications, employment, publications, peer reviews, as well as search for others in the ORCiD Registry.
  • Your ORCiD should contain non-sensitive information such as name, email, organisation and research activities.
  • Use your ORCiD when submitting manuscripts for publication, datasets and funding applications to minimise input of publication details and ensure connection between authors, your work and your affiliation.
  • You can elect to have your ORCiD auto-updated when works with a valid identifier are published, providing value for researchers.
  • A large number of institutions and publishers are integrated with ORCiD including publishers, libraries and societies. ​ORCiD improves data quality for an organisation and tracking of research performance; profile and visibility. 
  • We highly recommended signing up to an ORCiD using your .vuw.ac.nz email address. ORCiDs are persistent and portable and you can take them with you when or if you leave Victoria University of Wellington.
  1. Register for an ORCiD iD - it's easy and free
  2. Add your information - author name variants, affiliation, alternative email (in case you ever leave Victoria) and works (publications)
  3. Make your ORCiD iD publicly visible to Everyone. You can limit visibility of segments or individual entries if you wish, but it is important to have enough public information to identify you.
  4. Use your ORCiD iD in email signatures, publication submissions and grant applications

We recommend you authorise Elements to collect from your ORCiD iD. Every public record in your ORCiD profile will then flow through to your Elements profile.

You can also add works to your ORCiD iD in a number of manual ways:

  1. In your ORCiD iD select Add Works, Search & Link
    Authorise linking from sources such as CrossRef Metadata, DataCite, Europe PubMed, MLA International Bibliography, Researcher ID, Scopus and more. Watch this brief video
  2. In your Google Scholar profile (My Citations), select your claimed publications (click in box), then: 
    From the Export menu, select BibTeX
    BibTeX citations display on separate screen; right mouse click and Save as citations.txt
    Sign in to your ORCiD iD
    Select Add Works | Import BibTeX then Choose  citations.txt file you downloaded
  3. In Elements (Victoria University of Wellington staff) select your claimed publications, then: 
    Export to BibTex​
    Sign in to your ORCiD iD, Add Works, Import BibTeX​
    Choose the BibTeX file you downloaded    ​
  4. You can also add works manually to ORCiD if electronic records are not available from any of the above sources
  5. Use your ORCiD iD number when submitting manuscripts for publication and authorise CrossRef Metadata and DataCite to auto-update your ORCiD iD with records containing a digital object identifier (doi).