Researcher Profile and Identifier Management

Researchers and creators use publishing to promote and disseminate their work, and the Internet provides additional ways to widen its visibility and availability. They can also use researcher profile management to manage their online presence.  Researchers can create online profiles to promote their work, identify new collaborators, and inspire subsequent scholarship.  Various studies show that using online tools increase views of work and may lead to an increased impact of a researcher and his or her work.

The most frequently used means of researcher profile management include the following:

• Creating an individual web site (institutional or private).
• Opening a social media account: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and others with regular posts.
• Using a scholarly collaboration network (SCN):  Mendeley, ResearchGate, Academia.edu
• Posting a profile on a professional networking website: LinkedIn, or member profile sites of professional associations

Persistent Identifiers (PIDs).  A persistent identifier (known as PID) is a long-lasting label or reference to a person or an online work or object.  Here are some types and how they are assigned:

• Author or researcher IDs:  various organizations (ORCID) and publishers (Scopus ID) assign their respective PIDs to researchers.  A scholar can often created their own if one has not been created or assigned.
• Object or work IDs: digital object identifier (DOIs) are assigned to works such as articles or data sets so they can be found by others.  These are often created by either a publisher or a scholar.

Why use PIDs or research profiles?  Funders and organizations are increasingly using PIDs within various research-related workflows and as a means of tracking productivity. 

Which profile site is right for me?  Some profile sites and personal identifiers (PIDs) may be more relevant (and worthy of the time it takes for keeping the information current) than others.  Consider the following factors when selecting a profile or PID: 

• Discipline:  where are scholars and researchers in your discipline creating profiles?  A humanities or social work researcher may get more visibility when creating profiles on sites used by their peers rather than sites focused on a STEM audience.
• Sharing Work:  How do you want to share your work, and in what formats?  By default, most for-profit academic publishers (e.g., Wiley, Taylor & Francis) have limited policies for sharing your final version of record (although an author addendum or examining other options could change this).  Sharing links such as digital object identifiers (DOIs) or permanent URLs (PURLs) that lead to copies of work are, however, typically acceptable.  
• Grants and Funders:  some federal grants or other research funders may require applicants to create a profile on a particular site for their grant applications or workflows (e.g., SciENcv for NIH proposals).
• Privacy:  check for privacy options, especially if you wish to limit your visibility or what is shown to select viewers.