Have you checked who you are recently?

I’m sure we’ve all Googled our own name at some point and been interested or surprised to see what comes up in the search results. When it comes to your academic profile online, it is always a good idea to keep an eye on which publications are being credited to you – the results can be equally surprising!

Check out your digital researcher identity

If you’ve published a research output in a book, in a conference proceedings or journal, you may have an online identity that you are not aware of and it might not be accurate. Why not do a quick identity health check in the Scopus database to check your details are correct?

What is Scopus?

The Scopus database collates outputs from thousands of journals and other publications and track citations to them. The database is useful for searching for articles relevant to your research, helping you to decide where to publish, identifying potential collaborators and also helping you to discover who is citing your work and how often it is being cited.

In the Scopus database, outputs from the same author are aggregated in to a Scopus Author ID. As the information is collated automatically, you may find that the wrong articles have been attributed to you or that your articles have been split across several duplicate IDs.

Why is it important to check your author ID?

If your details in Scopus are incorrect, your publication record will be incomplete and possibly confusing to those interested in reading or citing your research. It is also worth checking out your Scopus Author ID to make sure that the articles attributed to you are correct because the bibliometric data used in the University of Reading’s Research Outputs Support System (ROSS) dashboards are taken from the Scopus database.  If your details are wrong, unreliable data will be pulled through into the University’s reporting process.

How do I find my author ID?

Find yourself in the Scopus database by using the ‘Author Search’ tab

To check your ID, visit the Scopus website www.scopus.com (available when using the University’s IP range). Choose the ‘Author Search’ tab from the Search menu and enter your details. If you’ve worked at several institutions it is best to leave the affiliation information blank. When the search results appear, it is worth choosing the ‘Show profile matches with one document’ option as publications can sometimes fail to aggregate under one author ID.

If your details are right

Great! Take a look at how your papers/articles are being cited, view your h-graph and analyse your author output. You might want to link your Scopus ID to your ORCID ID if you have one – check out our ORCID library guide  for help on how to do this. Check your Scopus author ID from time to time to check that new publications are being added.

If your details are wrong

If you have several Author IDs or there are publications in your profile that do not belong to you, you can ask Scopus to merge them. You can do this by using the ‘Request author detail corrections’ link (or contact Karen Rowlett, the University’s Research Publications Adviser who can do this on your behalf). It is worth checking that any missing publications have not been attributed to another researcher of a similar name. Corrections are usually done within 2 weeks.

Select the duplicate profiles and choose ‘Request to Merge Authors’ to correct duplicate author IDs

Missing Publications

Publications might be missing from your Author ID either because they have been attributed to someone else or because Scopus does not cover the journal/book/conference in which your article appeared. You can check the Scopus coverage by consulting their guide or downloading the Book and Journal source lists.

Wrong affiliation

If you have recently moved from another institution, it may take a while for your new affiliation to be reflected in your Scopus Author ID. You have to publish three outputs with your new address before it will change. If your affiliation is showing as somewhere that you’ve never worked, you can request a correction.

Help and support

If you are not sure how to check your Scopus Author ID or need help in sorting out your profile, please contact Karen Rowlett, Research Publications Adviser. There are also some regular sessions running through People Development on Managing your digital researcher profile and ORCID. You can check when the next course is running by searching the People Development course database.