It is beneficial for a researcher's career if their published scientific articles can be found in citation databases. It increases the discoverability and visibility of the researcher and their work in the scientific community. Variations and errors in the spelling of names and distinguishing between researchers with the same name may make it difficult to identify researchers and link publications to the right researcher.
The purpose of researcher identifiers and profiles is to gather all the researcher's publications and other academic activities under the correct person.
- Some profiles are formed by themselves, e.g. based on membership in an organization, e.g. TUNICRIS. For more information, see the TUNICRIS section of this guide.
- Others, on the other hand, are formed when the researcher's publications are indexed into a citation database (Scopus and Web of Science). This is how e.g. Scopus Author ID and Web of Science Researcher Profile are formed.
- Some identifiers/profiles need to be created by yourself, e.g. ORCID, Research.fi, and Google Scholar.
A researcher profile improves the evaluation and monitoring of scientific work, as it becomes easier to find publications and follow the citations received by articles. Many profiles can also be used to collect other information about your career.
Checklist - make sure that the information in you researcher profiles is correct:
- Check your information from the contact information for the Universities community
- Check your TUNICRIS profile
- Create yourself an ORCID researcher identifier
- Create a Researcher's Profile on the Research.fi portal
- Check your profile in different databases (Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar)
- Check that your affiliation is correct in your publications and different databases
Below are more detailed introductions to some researcher identifiers and profiles.
ORCID researcher identifier
The ORCID researcher identifier is an open, public, international, and community-based identifier system that provides a permanent and unique digital identifier that enables researchers to stand out from other researchers.
Open science policies in our community recommends that researchers obtain an ORCID researcher identifier and use it in all their academic activities. See: Tampere University’s Open Science Policy and Open science and research in the Tampere higher education community (concerns TAMK)
- A permanent ORCID identifier resolves confusion related to, for example, name changes, researchers with the same name, and different spellings of the name.
- ORCID can also be used to automatically transfer research outputs between different systems. In addition, an ORCID identifier can be linked to other researcher identifiers.
Create an ORCID researcher identifier at: https://orcid.org/register 
- It is useful to add and connect the ORCID researcher identifier in the University's research information system (TUNICRIS). The ORCID-CRIS integration works in TUNICRIS, which means that publications stored in CRIS are updated directly in ORCID. See CRIS INSTRUCTIONS.
- You will also need an ORCID researcher identifier if you want to create a Researcher's Profile on the Research.fi portal.
Creating an ORCID researcher identifier step by step (pdf)
Research.fi
Research.fi is a service provided by the Ministry of Education and Culture (OKM) that collects and distributes information on research conducted in Finland. The service improves the finding of research information and experts and increases the visibility and societal impact of Finnish research.
The Researcher's Profile tool allows you to combine your own national profile:
- With the help of your ORCID data,
- data imported from your home organisation's systems (TUNICRIS and JUSTUS); and
- information from Research.fi.
You do not edit your data in the tool, but you can see where the information comes from and change it directly at the source.
In the national service, your skills and knowledge are up-to-date and can be widely found when decision-makers, legislators, funders, research organisations, the media, and companies are looking for experts.
Scopus Author ID
- Scopus creates a profile for researchers by combining publications with certain criteria under the same Scopus Author ID.
- If the prerequisites for automatic combining are not met, the researcher may have multiple Scopus profiles. Publications can also be associated with incorrect profiles. You can make any changes you want using the Scopus Author Wizard.
- You can link your ORCID ID with your Scopus Author ID. This way, the ORCID ID makes it easier to connect publications to the right person and, on the other hand, publications can be added to ORCID directly from Scopus. See https://orcid.scopusfeedback.com/#/.
- Instructions for managing your Scopus-profile (author profile): Manage my Author Profile
Web of Science Researcher Profile
- The Web of Science Researcher Profile is intended for researchers with publications in the Web of Science (WoS) reference database. The purpose of the identifier is to connect the researcher with the correct publications. Create and maintain the identifier at Web of Science Researcher Profiles.
- The ResearcherID number remains the same even if the researcher's name or affiliation information changes.
- You can add a Web of Science Researcher profile to your ORCID ID, which makes it possible to transfer data between systems. You must give permission for the transfer of data between the services.
- More information on the Web of Science Researcher profile.
Google Scholar author profile
Google does not automatically create a profile based on publications, but researchers can create an account for themselves in Google and collect their articles found in Google Scholar into their own profile.
Google Scholar profile:
- public or private
- your publications in one list
- statistics and monitoring of citations for publications
- H-index for all publications from the last 5 years
- i10 index, i.e. the number of publications with more than 10 citations
- When searching Google Scholar for the author's name, the public profile is at the top of the list and as a visible link in the search results
For more information on the profile and how to create it, see https://scholar.google.fi/intl/fi/scholar/citations.html#overview.
It is worth noting that often according to Google Scholar, publications have received more citations than in other databases. However, Google Scholar is not always considered a reliable source for citation metrics due to its lack of transparency and quality control. Researchers should therefore use several sources to assess the impact of their work.
