Researcher profiles can help scholars track their publications, get metrics, and network with colleagues. There are many options for profiles, each with their own features. You may want to obtain or claim multiple profiles, depending on your goals.

Researcher Profiles may include features such as: citations, metrics, and networking. The following are the general types of researcher profiles.

ORCiD

ORCID is a non-profit that provides a persistent digital identifier (PID) and an online CV. ORCID is required by many federal grant applications. Researchers have full control over their ORCID profile. Northwestern encourages all researchers to obtain an ORCID ID.

ORCID is a great place to start because it syncs with other systems. Think of ORCID as the center of a

Vendor Profiles

Some author profiles are machine generated through vendors, including: Google Scholar, Web of Science/ResearcherID and Scopus ID. It is possible to claim some aspects of these profiles. Claiming the profiles allows you to clean up information generated by the vendor database. For example, combining multiple profiles make under your name or adding a photo.

Networking Profiles

Other author profiles, such as ResearchGate and Academia.edu, are similar to LinkedIn but for academia only. They allow for networking among academics. These profiles may appeal particularly to academics that are job hunting, looking for research partnerships, or want to be contacted by journalists.

Media Expertise

Northwestern Faculty who are interested in speaking to the media can submit this form to apply for the Faculty Experts database. If you are interested in developing skills in communicating your research to a broader audience, Global Marketing and Communications provides media training tools for faculty.

Northwestern students, faculty, post-docs, and staff can schedule a consultation on managing your online identity or email questions to Jamie Carlstone.

The researcher profile/scholarly identity ecosystem can be overwhelming. There is no need to sign up for every type of profile, but you will want to setup multiple profiles since they each have different features. A good place to start is with ORCID because it syncs with other systems, such as Scopus and Web of Science.

Other profiles depend on the kind of visibility you are looking for. At the least, it is a good idea to claim your profiles in Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar--these systems will auto-create profiles for scholars, so you might as well claim them.

Make sure to add a link to your ORCID in all your profiles as your online CV!