Where to publish your research article: Author identity

When you start publishing it is highly advisable to create a unique author name to ensure that you are able to track citations to your research as well as to ensure that your research can be found continuously.

Because multiple researchers in the same or different fields may have the same first and last names, there is an author ambiguity problem within the scholarly research community. To circumvent this problem, the idea has been raised of assigning each researcher a "unique author identifier."

The benefits of such a system include:

• Less ambiguity as to who has published a certain paper when different variations of an author’s name have been used
• Ability to accurately measure citations of individual papers or authors
• Easier evaluation of an author’s productivity and impact in his/her field

The most recognized systems for administering unique author identifiers are

• ORCID (Open Researcher & Contributor ID)
• ResearcherID
• Scopus Author Identifier

 Source and further reading: Cold Spring Harbor ORCID, and Other Unique Author Identifiers libguide.

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RESEARCHER ID by Thomson Reuters allows you to create such a unique identifier which eliminates author misidentification and allows you to view an author’s citation metrics instantly. It also allows you to search the database’s registry to find collaborators, review publication lists and explore how research is used around the world.

To use ResearcherID you need to create an account in Web of Science (Library website > E-databases > Web of Science). After creating this general account, you also have to register with ResearcherID. In order to do this, you complete another form providing more information about your research profile including the different versions of your name (e.g. J. Smith, JC Smith, James Smith).

Once you have completed the registration, the system provides you with a unique ID which looks like this: F-4414-2012.

With registration completed, you can

• manage your profile
• view your publications
• add publications to your list from Web of Science
• look at who is citing you
• look at your citation metrics (based on citations in Web of Science)

Bibliometrics and citation analysis