Manage your Research Identity and Track your Impact

The online scholarly profile of researchers is quickly becoming the new CV. Even if you have never created one of these profiles, online services such as Google Scholar may already be tracking and collating your work, and generating metrics as indicators of your scholarly impact. Indiana University Libraries can assist you with research identity management by helping you with three major components:

• Creating a unique online ID to differentiate you from other researchers
• Managing your online profile to ensure that your qualifications and research output are accurately reflected
• Tracking the impact of your work using online tools

Get Your ORCID iD

Rather than just using your name, which may be the same or similar to another's, you can link your research output to a unique identifier that refers to you wherever you work, present or publish.

Indiana University Libraries has joined ORCID – a nonprofit organization that provides an open, transparent solution for researcher identity management. You can create a free ORCID iD – a 16-digit number that uniquely identifies you as a researcher, and helps differentiate you from other researchers. ORCID iDs are widely used, and in many cases required, by publishers and grant agencies.

Check out our ORCID @ Indiana University page for information on how to create your ORCID iD, easily receive credit and recognition for your work, reduce time spent on reports and administrative requirements, and continually and automatically update your research record. You can also request a consultation.

Manage Online Profiles

Your academic profile should serve as a narrative of your scholarly experiences, including teaching, professional networks, and impact. It should consist of a range of tools for getting your narrative heard, and making your work visible and accessible. An ORCID iD is only one tool, which assigns a permanent identifier to you and helps you create a portable online CV. You can make your work openly accessible by depositing it in IUScholarWorks, our institutional repository. Some great tools that you can use to enhance your profile are Google Scholar, and ImpactStory. You can also use email alert services, and the Altmetrics bookmarklet, to keep up with who is using or talking about your research output or related scholarship. Many have found social networks like LinkedIN, Academia.edu, ResearchGate, and Mendeley useful. Contact us for assistance with or more information about these services.

Demonstrate Impact

Research administrators are increasingly turning to various metrics to help them evaluate the outputs, productivity, and impact of researchers. We can help you understand the most common metrics that institutions look at. We can also provide you with resources and training in using citation and other metrics to find out who is citing, reusing, or otherwise talking about your research, and how to use these metrics to demonstrate the impact of your work. Our department offers consultations to the entire IU scholarly community, including faculty seeking tenure, who wish to use research metrics in dossier preparation.