Author Identity Management

What is Google Scholar?

Google Scholar is a search engine designed specifically to search for scholarly literature across disciplines and publishing formats including journal articles, research reports, books, conference proceedings, patents, working papers, and more. It is a web search engine for researchers to locate scholarly outputs with citation metrics. The service is free to use and is available worldwide.

More information about Google Scholar is available here.

What is a Google Scholar Profile?

Google Scholar Profiles provide a simple way for researchers to showcase their publications, citations, and other academic information via a personal profile page. The profiles will turn up in Google searches and thus make your work more discoverable. Maintaining a Google Scholar profile is a great way to establish and maintain your academic reputation and showcase your research and expertise. To create your Google Scholar profile, you will need to sign up for a Google account and then add your publication information into your profiles. The steps are listed in the following.

To create a Google Scholar Profile:

(1)  Sign up for a Google account first if you do not have one.

(2)  Go to Google Scholar and select “My Profile”.

(3)  Fill in your profile details, then click "Next".

For validation email, please make sure you fill in a personal email to prevent losing access to your Google Scholar Profile after you left an institution.

(4)  Choose and add your publications.

Move on by clicking the arrow button at the top right-hand corner.

(5)  Review the settings for article updates and profile visibility, then click "Done".

Uncheck the automatic updates if you want to be emailed before a publication is added to your profile. Google does not always find exact matches of your name so there is possibility of adding publications that might not belong to you.

Why are Google Scholar citations higher than those in Scopus or Web of Science?

There are several reasons why Google Scholar citations are often higher than those in Scopus or Web of Science:

1. Coverage: Google Scholar covers a much wider range of publications, including conference proceedings, book chapters, reports and even non-peer-reviewed works, which may not be indexed in Scopus or Web of Science.
2. Self-citations: Google Scholar counts self-citations, while other databases may exclude them or count them at a lower rate.
3. Different algorithms: Each database has its own algorithm for counting citations, which can lead to differences in the results.
4. Time lag: There can be a time lag in the indexing of papers and citations in different databases, which can result in different citation counts.

It is important to note that while Google Scholar may have higher citation counts, it is not always considered a reliable source for citation metrics due to its lack of transparency and quality control. Researchers should use multiple sources to evaluate the impact of their work.

For more Information about Google Scholar profile set-up and maintenance, click: Google Scholar Profile FAQ