Research Visibility and Impact: Broadening your impact

Open Researcher and Contributor ID

A tool that offers a solution to the author's name and misidentification by providing persistent unique IDs for researchers.

Benefits of having an ORCID iD

• Avoid misidentification
• Facilitate the interoperable exchange of information and integrates with numerous bibliographic databases, platforms, profiling tools, manuscript submission systems, funder grant workflows, and research repositories.
• ID is linked to all research activities
• Scholarly work is discovered
• Identification by potential collaborators
• Sharing of ID with others 
• Another added benefit is the ORCID advancement has been integrated with numerous systems.
• More benefits for researchers
• Watch this short video on ORCID:

How to create an ORCID account?

Step 1: ORCID account

• Create an ORCID account
• Add additional names under "also known as"
• Add and link websites and social links – this allows the researcher to add and link to social media pages like personal websites, Google Scholar, Figshare, ResearchGate, Linkedin, Academia.edu and more.
• Add emails and make them visible to the public
• Short videos on how to Register for your ORCID, Edit your name on ORCID
• Register for an ORCID account

Step 2: Add personal information

• Add biography
• Add affiliation (i.e. employer)
• Add academic credentials like education, qualifications, achievements
• Add funding information
• Add membership or service association
• A short video on how to add personal information

Step 3: Add works or publications to your ORCID

Add works or publications from Scopus to ORCID

• Use search and link wizard
• Publications can be pulled from Crossref, DataCite, and Scopus/Elsevier databases.
• Connect the ORCID account with the Scopus account and import publications from Scopus to ORCID.
• Here is How to add publications from Scopus into ORCID
• Notes from the guide provide illustrative examples of how to add publications from Scopus

Add works or publications from Google Scholar to ORCID

• Follow the steps in this guide
• Please note that the file downloaded from Google Scholar will be listed under your downloads.

How do you add works or publications manually?

• Follow the easy steps in this guide.

Step 4: Reset ORCID password, update ORCID records and delete duplicate ORCID iD

• Few steps to reset your password
• Watch this short video on how to update your ORCID record
• Link and authorize CrossRef to update your ORCID account automatically

• Steps to remove or delete duplicate ORCID iD's.

Step 5: Add ORCID iD icon and link to your email signature

• Sign in to ORCID, scroll to Display formats and copy the full green ORCID circle icon. Example:
• Right-click and copy the ORCID icon and paste it into your email signature
• Copy the ORCID URL and paste it next to the icon
• Click save changes

Key Steps to import publications from Google Scholar to ORCID

Step 1: Export from Google Scholar

1. Go to your Google Scholar profile
2. Select the publications you want to export (tick the checkboxes)
3. Click the “Export” button
4. Choose BibTeX format for export

Step 2: Import to ORCID

1. Log in to your ORCID account
2. Go to the “Works” section of your profile
3. Click “+ add works” > “import BibTeX”
4. Upload your .bib file or paste the BibTeX entry
5. Review and confirm the imported publications.

Step 3: Update and complete publication details

• After importing, edit each entry to add missing details such as:
  • DOI (Digital Object Identifier), URLS, etc
  • Journal name
  • Publisher
  • Volume, issue, page numbers
• This ensures your record is accurate and easily discoverable.

How to Create a Google Scholar Profile?

Google Scholar profiles are a popular tool among researchers for tracking academic output and citation metrics. Many scholars associated with the University of Pretoria have already established their profiles. Creating a Google Scholar Profiles helps to increase the discoverability and global reach of a researcher's work, benefitting postgraduate students, emerging researchers, established academics, and even preserving the legacy of late scholars.

Benefits of a Google Scholar Profile

• Tracks citations and shows how often your work is cited.
• Improves visibility of your research in the academic community.
• Consolidates publications in one place.
• Connects you with peers through co-author listings.
• Enhances credibility and makes it easier for others to find your work.
• Keeps your work discoverable, even if it’s hosted on multiple platforms (e.g., repositories, journals).

Steps to Create a Google Scholar Profile

Step 1: Sign in to your Google Account

• Go to Google Scholar
• Click on “My Profile” in the top-left corner
• If you don’t have a Google account, create one first

Step2: Enter your personal information

• Add your name, affiliation, and email address (preferably an institutional email for verification).
• Include areas of interest (e.g., African literature, language policy).
• Add a profile photo 

Step 3: Add your publications

• Google will suggest articles that it thinks belong to you.
• Select and confirm the correct ones.
• You can also manually add articles by clicking the “+” button and entering publication details.
• To set up your Google Scholar profile, watch this short video:

Step 4: Choose update settings

• Decide whether to allow Google Scholar to automatically add new articles or send you alerts for approval.

Step 5: Make your profile public

• Tick the checkbox to make your profile publicly visible so others can find it.

Step 6: Maintain and update your Google Scholar Profile regularly

• Periodically review and correct any misattributed works or duplicates.
• Add missing publications manually if needed.

Scopus Author Identifier

• This 11th-digit Author identifier is assigned automatically to authors who publish with Elsevier.
• Through Scopus Author Identifier, authors can view their research areas, track peer-reviewed work, publish and cite information (learn more about Scopus citations and other types of metrics), name variations, affiliation and more.
• You can view your citations and h-index using the author feedback wizard and learn more about Scopus citations, how the h-index is calculated, and more.
• Scopus ID distinguishes authors with similar names and makes it easy to identify multiple profiles.
• Authors can merge multiple profiles
• Connect your ORCID through the Scopus Author Identifier

How to create and connect Scopus Author Identifier?

• Perform author search on Scopus.
• Enter the last surname only to retrieve as many name variants and multiple profiles as possible. Alternatively, search by last name and affiliation.
• Send Scopus publications to ORCID.
• This author's video tutorial provides clear guidance on what and how to update Scopus Author ID.
• More about Scopus Author Identifier browse Scopus: Profile and content corrections Support Center

• See also notes on Scopus,h-index, Citations, Metrics, and Author Profiles.

Publons, previously Web of Science ResearcherID

• Web of Science ResearcherID is now on Publons.
• Publons track publications, citation information, peer reviews and journal editing work into a profile

• Publications are immediately imported from Web of Science through ORCID or a bibliographic reference manager like EndNote or Mendeley

How do you create a Publons Profile? Watch this video:

• Get started and register for a free Publons profile
• Duplicate profiles can be deleted with a few steps.

Browse through existing profiles.

• North-West University Publon profiles
• North-West University Researchers with Publon ResearcherID profiles