Two Types of Author Profiles: Auto-Generated or Opt-In

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Author profiles are extremely useful vehicles for increasing the visibility and discoverability of your published work. Although it is more popular in the business world, many researchers now have LinkedIn profiles that they may use to push out information about their research and publications to their professional community.

However, there are also some more scholarly options that are worthy of investigation, as they may increase your chances of having your work discovered online by other researchers who may be interested in building on your research or in engaging with you in scholarly collaboration.

There are two types of author profiles: 1) auto-generated ones and 2) “opt-in” ones.

1) Auto-generated Author Profiles:

In the case of auto-generated Author Profiles, when the author publishes a new work, the database producer will automatically add the new citation record to the profile, without further author involvement needed. All profiles are available for viewing by searchers of the database and often include some research impact metrics. (Note: It is a good idea to periodically check your Scopus and Web of Science database profiles for accuracy as errors may negatively-impact the research impact metrics being reported on your Author Profile.)

Examples:

  • Synapse (MSK Authored Works) – https://synapse.mskcc.org/synapse
    Synapse is a database of citations to MSK-authored works (e.g., journal articles, meeting abstracts, book chapters, etc.) that includes some traditional research metrics and alternative metrics (embedded/sourced from a vendor called Dimensions).

  • Scopus Author Profiles – https://libguides.mskcc.org/scopus
    Scopus Author Profiles include metrics (e.g. H-Index) that are generated via citation analysis of the contents of the Scopus database, which includes “Times Cited” data.

  • Web of Science Author Profiles – https://libguides.mskcc.org/webofscience
    Similar to Scopus Author Profiles, however, the new version of Web of Science will include additional details that may speak to an individual author’s research impact, for example, Author Position information (First or Last author, etc.).

2) Opt-In Author Profiles:

In the case of opt-in Author Profiles, the author can choose to register for an account with a particular service and create a profile. It is the author’s responsibility to add citations to the profile and to update it whenever they publish new works. The author can also decide to make the profile public or private (i.e., they are in control over who/what gets viewed).

Examples:

  • ORCID – https://orcid.org/
    ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is an independent, not-for-profit, non-proprietary Author Profile resources that does not provide metrics, a reporting interface, or a collaboration portal, but they enable other organizations to provide these services. Many journal publishers and database providers have started integrating ORCID links/info into their products. For example, the ORCID symbol is often included as a hyperlink (on HTML and PDF of articles) that leads to that author’s ORCID profile, allowing readers of this paper to immediately discover other works by that author.

  • Publons (via Web of Science) – https://publons.com/about/home/
    The source of research impact metrics data in this resource is its sister product, Web of Science. A unique feature of Publons is that it allows authors to get verified credit for their participation in the peer-review process.

  • Google Scholar – https://scholar.google.com/
    Google Scholar’s greatest advantage is that it is free and not behind a paywall, as are Scopus and Web of Science.

ORCID@MSK App

Since your ORCID profile is “opt-in”, it is not automatically updated with your new works. Recognizing that keeping opt-in Author Profiles up-to-date can be time-consuming, the MSK Library has created an app that makes it easy to push items from your “auto-generated” Synapse profile to your “opt-in” ORCID profile. You can use the ORCID@MSK app to connect your Synapse profile to your ORCID profile. Since Synapse is automatically updated, you can periodically login to ORCID@MSK and pass on the new items added to Synapse to your ORCID profile so that it also stays up-to-date.

Be sure to check out the MSK Library‘s training class on Measuring Research Impact or to Ask Us if you have any questions about Author Profiles.

Three Questions: Marina Rosenfield, Special Projects Librarian

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For our next Three Questions interview, we spoke with Marina Rosenfield, Special Projects Librarian.

(L) Marina enjoying a sunny afternoon outside RRL. (R) Marina and daughter Anya. Photos © Marina Rosenfield. Used with permission.

What areas can you help MSK users with? 

As part of the team working on Synapse, MSK’s collection of author profiles and authoritative database of published content from our researchers, clinicians, and nurses, I can answer your questions about keeping track of your publications and managing your profile page. Would you like to add or update your profile photo? Are there published works that are missing from your list of publications that you would like to include? Do you have any questions about manipulating the data in Synapse, including filtering, exporting, and reusing for reporting? I can help you with almost any question you have about Synapse. 

What projects have you been working on recently? 

I am working on several new projects in addition to the ongoing work of ingesting and verifying MSK publication data. Since the start of quarantine last spring, Synapse team has been keeping an up-to-date list of MSK-generated publications in response to Covid-19. Late last year, I helped reorganize the Synapse category of “journal articles” into a number of narrower publication types to help MSK authors and administrators get a clearer picture of overall publication output. We have reorganized the 2020 Synapse data to conform to the new standard. Now, I and my team-mates are working on converting 2019 journal articles already listed in Synapse to the new publication categories as well. Finally, we are starting collecting data for the 2020 Synapse publications report, a fifth one in our series! 

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Having cancelled vacations and holidays with the family for a full year now, I would be happy to go anywhere in the world that would have me. My long-term bucket list includes Turkey, the Republic of Georgia, and Japan. 

 

Your Words of Thanks Got Us Through the Winter

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It has officially been a year since the MSK Library closed its physical space during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. We re-opened our door two days per week in October 2020, and the highlight of our re-opening was seeing members of the MSK community in person. Whether we are assisting our users in person, or via our virtual services, we are so grateful for your words of thanks. Here is a sampling of some that helped get us through a long, hard winter:

“So many thanks to you and your assistance. The list is an excellent foundation for the start of my work, and I appreciate your help.. I am so thankful that you have given me this great start.”
Department: Nursing

“Thank you Johanna!! Excellent lecture. That was really great. You are a wonderful resource!”
Department: Radiology

“Have a great day! Thanks for your very powerful work at MSKCC!”
Service: Document Delivery

“This is great. It means a lot to me to get reliable info. I don’t want to go down the rabbit hole of “the google” and read outdated info. And I crave reliable information regarding all things related to my cancer diagnosis and testing. Of course this is not a replacement for discussing info with my oncologist. It just makes me better informed.”
-MSK Patient/Caregiver