Many researchers share the same name, while others have different names during their career, or different variations of the same name. As a result, it can be difficult to link a researcher with her publications and research outputs across the course of her career. Solutions to this problem have been proffered by ORCID, ResearcherID, and Author Identifier, among others, as presented on this page.
ORCID--Open Researcher and Contributor ID--provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher and supports automated linkages between you and your professional activities ensuring that your work is recognized. You can sign up for an ORCID for free to get started and see the videos below for more information about building your ORCID profile.
Web of Science also provides a unique author identifier called a ResearcherID that allows you to link your research outputs as indexed in Thomson Reuters' databases. ResearcherID collects your various publications together, even if your name has been listed differently from item to item.
Please note, however, that ResearcherID works primarily within the Web of Science ecosystem. To link your research more widely online, consider adopting an ORCID.
Elsevier/Scopus also provides an author identifier to distinguish researchers and aggregate research outputs. Note that Washington State University does not subscribe to Scopus. However, you may want to associate a previous author identifier with your ORCID ID.
It is now possible to integrate ORCID with ResearcherID, Author Identifier, and Google Scholar. You can push publications and research outputs from one system to the other by logging into each profile and enabling access between one system and the other. Instructions for integrating identifiers include:
You have the option of adding citations to your author identifier by exporting them from sources such as Google Scholar and Search It. You'll begin by exporting a BibTex file containing your citations. Then, you can upload this file to ORCID or ResearcherID and your citations will be added.
To export your citations from Google Scholar: log in to your profile and select the citations you want to export. Then click on Export -> BibTex.
To export your citations from Search It: find the citations that you'd like to export, then click on Actions -> Export BibTex.
When you export a BibText file, you'll need to save it on your computer. Remember to select UTF-8 as your encoding option when saving. This step is important because it will help resolve garbling of characters that can occur during the export/import process.
To add your citations to ORCID: log in to your ORCID profile. Select Add Works -> Import BibTex and navigate to the file you just saved. Once you've uploaded the BibTex file, your citations will appear in your profile.
