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Research Impact

Researcher identity

As researchers, you have several opportunities to build your digital identity and promote the impact of your work through online researcher identity management, and researcher profile systems. Elements of your digital research identity can be: 

  • your research interests,
  • your publications,
  • your professional affiliations,
  • citations, 
  • metrics relating to the impact of your work,
  • the manner in which you style your name on your publications and other professional works.

Why manage your researcher identity?

There are benefits both for researchers and institutions from the management of research identities:

  • avoid confusion in relation to identifying authors, 
  • attribute research work correctly,
  • increase visibility of scholars and their research outputs.

How can I build my researcher identity?

There are several widely used researcher profile systems that allow you to build your researcher identity.

You could start by:

  1. registering for an ORCID iD, and
  2. creating your Google Scholar profile.

Other proprietary tools allow you to get unique iDs that connect you with your publications within their systems:

  1. Web of Science Researcher ID: this is a unique identifier that connects you to your publications across the Web of Science ecosystem and provides the global research community with an index to author information. Having a Web of Science ResearcherID allows you to:
    • solve author identity issues,
    • ensure correct attribution between you and your publications on the Web of Science,
    • add citation metrics,
    • keep your ORCID up to date by linking it to your Web of Science ResearcherID.
  2. Scopus Author ID: This is an ID automatically generated if you have a paper in the database, so registration for a Scopus Author ID is not required. 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.

To built your researcher identity, check the respective dedicated sections of this guide or you just ask a librarian to help you!