Research Profile: Author Identifiers

What is ORCID?   It stands for Open Researcher and Contributor ID.  It is a unique 16-digit number for "individuals to use with their name as they engage in research, scholarship, and innovation activities." 

Who developed it? A non-profit organization composed of universities, publishers, funders, and other groups involved in research.  ORCID identifiers have been issued to researchers since 2012.

The University of Saskatchewan is a member of the ORCID Canada Consortium, and once your profile is set up, you can choose to log in with your NSID and password instead of your ORCID password.

How to set up a profile:  

1. Go to the ORCID homepage,

2. Click Register now!

3. Complete the registration form. See also "Adding publications (works) to your profile," below.  

What can it do for me?  It helps you

• create a list of your scholarly works; this list can be updated automatically if you use your ORCID at the time of submission of your article.  A number of journal publishers now require authors to provide their ORCID identifier.    
• distinguish between you and other researchers with similar names
• bring work published under different variants of your name together
• display your education, grant and employment information

Can I control which parts of my profile are publicly visible?  Yes.  All items in your record, with the exception of the identifier itself, can be hidden from public view.

Frequently asked questions:  Answers from ORCID's own knowledge base.

Adding publications (works) to your profile:

1.  Option 1:  Importing publications into ORCID using ORCID publication wizards:  Log into your ORCID account, and under "Works," click "Add Works" and "Search & Link."  Choose an option.  Some of the best options for you might be Scopus to ORCID, since Scopus creates a profile automatically for anyone whose works are indexed in Scopus; Europe PubMed Central (if you work in the health sciences); MLA International Bibliography (if you work in the humanities); or ResearcherID (if you have a Researcher ID account).

2.  Option 2:  Manual entry:   Log into your ORCID account, and under "Works," click "Add Works" and then "Add Manually."  This will be the most work for you, and is likely to produce the largest number of errors. 

3:  Option 3:   Importing publications into ORCID using Google Scholar:  While this is possible, the ORCID site recommends using the wizards (option 1) instead, since this is more likely to result in accurate publication information.  To import publications from Google Scholar, log into your Google Scholar Citations account.  Check off the publications you wish to export, and then click the Export button.  Choose BibTex as the file format, and then choose Save As from your browser (or right click to see this option.)  In ORCID, choose Add Works -- Import BibTex and then choose the file you just downloaded.  You will then have the choice to save individual articles to your profile or to "ignore" them.  

IMPORTANT:  Because you may use several sources to import your publications, you may end up with more than one record in your profile for the same article/work.  Try sorting your works by title so that you can find the duplicates more easily and then delete the duplicates.  If multiple records containing the same item identifier (e.g., DOI, ISBN) are entered into ORCID, ORCID will display only the "preferred source."  At the bottom of the record, you'll see something like "preferred source (of 2)."  Click to see the other source, and delete, if you wish.

Example of ORCID profile:  See the profile of Josiah Carberry.

What is Google Scholar Citations? A way for authors to keep track of citation of their articles. But it does not have a unique identifier number.

Who developed it? Google made this feature available in 2011.

How to set up a profile? Click here to find out how to set up a Google Scholar Citation profile.

What can it do for me? Identify citation counts and the h-index of your publications in Google Scholar. Citation counts provided in Google Scholar are generally higher than those identified in citation databases such as Web of Science or Scopus.

Can I control which parts of my profile are publicly visible?  Yes. Click here to find out how to make your profile public or private.

Frequently asked questions: Answers from Google.

Example of a Google Scholar Citation: see the profile of Albert Einstein:

What is Scopus Author Profile? It is an author identifier used specifically by Scopus database.

Who developed it? Scopus database, a citation database owed by Elsevier.

How to set up a profile? You do not need to set up a profile; if you have a paper indexed in Scopus database, your Scopus Author Profile is automatically generated.

What can it do for me? It creates a list of the author’s publications that are indexed in Scopus, and also provides citation metrics of the author such as citation counts and h-index.

Can I control which parts of my profile are publicly visible? No. It is created by Scopus automatically if you are an author of an article indexed in Scopus.

How to Find My Scopus Author Profile?

1. Go to Scopus.
2. Click Authors search tab, and type your last name,  first name, and affiliation (e.g., University of Saskatchewan), click search button.
3. You will find your Scopus Author Profile if you have a paper indexed in Scopus.

Note:

• Because Scopus Author Profile is generated automatically, Scopus may not match all your publications to your Scopus Author Profile correctly.  If you have found any issues with your Scopus Author Profile, use the Author Feedback Wizard to request changes or updates to your profile. 

Linking Scopus Author Profile to ORCID to transfer your publications details from Scopus into your ORCID profile automatically:

1. Once you find your Scopus Author Profile, click on your name to open your profile page
2. Click Connect to ORCID on your profile page. This will open the ORCID sign in page.
3. Log in with your ORCID ID and password, and follow the steps to link your Scopus Author Profile with your ORCID

Frequently asked questions: Answers from Scopus.

Example of a Scopus Author Profile: see the profile of Dr. Gerhard Herzberg, a former USask professor and a Nobel Laureate:

What is ResearcherID? A unique alphanumeric identifier that contains the year you registered. 

Who developed it?  Thomson Reuters, the company that owned the Web of Science database, launched ResearcherID in 2008.  Clarivate Analytics now owns Web of Science and ResearcherID.

How to set up a profile:  Check out this video posted on the Web of Science Training channel on YouTube.  

What can it do for me?  It helps you

• create a list of your scholarly works
• distinguish between you and other researchers with similar names
• bring work published under different variants of your name together 

It also provides you with

• your h-index (based on Web of Science data)
• the number of citations received by your articles (based on Web of Science data)

You can share data between your ORCiD and ResearcherID profiles and add your ResearcherID to Web of Science records.

Can I control which parts of my profile are publicly visible?  Yes.  When you register, there are some items on the registration page that will be public by default, including your first name, last name, institution, role, and other names. Your mailing address and email will be private. You can change these settings once you have logged into your account.

Frequently asked questions:  Answers from the ResearcherID help page.  

Example of ResearcherID profile:  Check out the ResearcherID profile of Sina Adl, a USask researcher.