Author identifiers, such as ORCIDs, give you a way to reliably and unambiguously connect your names(s) with your work throughout your career, including your papers, data, biographical information, etc. This can be helpful in a number of ways:
Post on PLoS Blogs provides a concise explanation of author identifiers.
Brief article in Nature explaining the purpose and benefits of ORCID.
Interview about the International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI), another author identifier system.
| Identifiers | Scopus Author Identifier | |
| What is it? |
Persistent digital identifiers for researchers |
Automatically generated identifier number within Scopus |
| Integrated with... | Open, non-profit community effort that has partnered with many universities, commercial research organizations, national funding agencies, publishers and professional societies | Scopus |
| Create your own profile? | Yes | No, but can request to merge profiles if you have multiple Author Identifiers |
| How do I add publications to my profile? |
Import from partner organizations, e.g. Web of Science, Scopus, CrossRef, etc. Import BibTex file of citations (export from Zotero to Bib Tex format) Add via DOI, PubMed ID or ArcXiv ID Enter manually |
You can only request that changes be made to your profile |
| Features |
Add citations for ALL types of scholarly outputs, not just publications. Add external identifiers, e.g. ResearcherID, Scopus Author Identifier Link to other systems or profiles, e.g. NIH eRA Commons, SciENcv biosketch creation tool, Google Scholar, LinkedIn, and others You choose what information to make public |
Provides citation metrics
|
| Best used for... |
Managing research activities and author identifiers in one place Grant and manuscript submissions: many publishers and funding organizations have implemented or are planning to implement ORCID. |
Ensures that your publications are properly attributed in Scopus Allows others to easily locate your publications in Scopus |
| Where can I get it? |
Register for free at ORCID |
Check profile at Scopus Follow these instructions for requesting corrections to your profile |
| Google Scholar Citations | Research Gate | Academia.edu | Mendeley | ||
| Overview |
Profile and Author Identifier integrated into Scopus Free to search but profile does not appear in mainstream search engines Account automatically is created when author's first publication is indexed by Scopus |
Profile | Profile | Profile | Profile |
| Biography |
No |
No, only affliations and research interests | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Publication List | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Linked Publications | Yes | Yes | Possible | Possible | Yes |
| Adding (semi) automatic | Yes, only articles indexed by Scopus are included | Yes (not always accurate) | PubMed, IEEE, Cite Seer, BMC | Crossref, Microsoft AS, PubMed, ArVix | Available via many search engines and when RIS or BibTeX files are available |
| Includes metrics | Yes | Yes | Yes | No traditional metrics but does show page and document views | Yes, but metrics are only visible to the profile owner |
| Social Media | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |