Start main page content
Get a digital ID with ORCiD

ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher. You may share the same name with other researchers or might have changed your name at some point in your career. How are others supposed to know if they’ve found the right you?

By assigning a unique and permanent identifier, ORCID helps you protect your scholarly identity and keep your publication record up-to-date with little effort.

Other reasons to sign up for an ORCID identifier:

  • Provide your ORCID ID to funders and publishers when required
  • Create an online CV

Claiming your ORCID ID takes less than a minute and you can easily follow each step to complete your profile.

Create a Google Scholar profile

Google Scholar does not only work as an academic search platform. It also allows you to showcase your papers and the citations they’ve received, all in one place. Your Google Scholar profile gives an overview of your work and of the impact of your research, including the number of citations and metrics many researchers love to track.

Additional benefits of Google Scholar:

  • You receive notifications every time Google detects that your work has been cited, which, in turn, can help you understand how your work is being used.

  • You improve your scholarly SEO and share your publications more easily with new readers.

  • Users can "Follow" you and receive notifications of your new publications.

Improve your LinkedIn profile

Be sure that the information available on your profile is accurate and engaging. Here are a few suggestions:

  • Customize your profile's URL to include your name. This step can help increase the traffic to your profile when people search for you online. You should see the option to edit your public profile URL, on the right side of your profile page.

  • Share your publications, important conference presentations, etc. LinkedIn provides a series of options to add sections to your profile page Don't skip the chance to customize your profile with relevant information that will help promote your research in your LinkedIn network.

Create a presence on ResearchGate or Academia.edu

ResearchGate

Apart from broad networking sites like LinkedIn, as a researcher, it's also important to have a presence on websites geared specifically toward the research community, such as ResearchGate.

Even though their appeal is limited to the research/academic community, these websites provide an opportunity for members to discover your research and to encourage collaborations. Together, these online platforms provide an important space to promote research, discuss and evaluate it. And most of the profiles can be linked to your ORCID identifier.

Academia.edu

Academia.edu is a platform for academics to share research papers. The company's mission is to accelerate the world's research.

Academics use Academia.edu to share their research, monitor deep analytics around the impact of their research, and track the research of academics they follow. Over 63 million academics have signed up to Academia.edu, adding 20 million papers. Academia.edu attracts over 22 million unique visitors a month. Unfortunately they will charge you for some of their services.

Make sure your research is open

To help promote your research online, you can share open access versions of your outputs via:

  • university online repositories like Wits' WireDSpace

  • platforms and social networks like LinkedIn, etc., with the advantage that your followers get a notification every time you share a new publication, hence drawing their attention to your new papers

  • Slideshare to share PowerPoints of your conference presentations, invited talks, classes, etc

  • Figshare to upload, save and share your research outputs, from papers and posters to codes and data sets

Share