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Research Impact Challenge at Bradley University

This guide contains 10 activities for researchers to better understand and manage their online scholarly presence, as well as the impact and reach of their research.

Day 2: Claim your Google Scholar Profile

Welcome to Day 2 of the Library Research Impact Challenge!

Today’s challenge is to make the most of Google Scholar by claiming your profile.

If you’ve ever searched for scholarly literature on the web, you’ve almost certainly encountered Google Scholar. But did you know that this tool can also be used to keep track of your own publications (and publications that cite your work)?

Here's how to do it: 

  1. Go to scholar.google.com and (if you are not already logged in) “sign in” in the upper right corner. Then open “my profile” in the upper left hand corner to begin.

    Screenshot highlighting upper corners for link locations.

  2. Be sure to complete your name, affiliation, and email address at this time. We recommend that you use your Bradley University email address. Later, check your email to complete the verification process. This will authorize Google Scholar to display your affiliation with Bradley University as “verified.”

     

    Screenshot of fields to complete.

  3. Next you’ll be presented with a list of publications that Google Scholar thinks were written by you. Some may be yours, and some may not be, especially if you have a common name. If you are a prolific author, or if you have a very common name, there may be many publications to review the first time you set up your profile. If there are publications that don’t belong to you, check the box beside each and then select “delete.” This will remove the record for that item from your profile.

     

    If Google has identified multiple records that are really referring to the same work, you can check the boxes next to all records that refer to the same work and select “merge.”

    If you do not have any publications, Google Scholar will present you with some options for publications that it thinks could belong to you. Unfortunately, in order to move forward with the process, you will have to accept one of these and then later remove it from your profile.

    When you're done, select "Next." 

  4. Now you'll be given two decisions to make:

     

    • Do you want Google Scholar to automatically add your publications to your profile as it finds them (without you having to do anything), or do you want it to send you an email with publications to review before they appear on your profile? This is up to you, and you can change it later if you wish.
    • Do you want your profile to be public? If you check the box to make it public, you’ll be more “Googleable” by others. If you have a long list of publications to review (from step 3) and haven’t gone through them all yet, you may wish to set your profile to private until you’re confident that the work represented on it is all truly yours, and then switch it to public. You can always change your profile from private to public and vice versa.
  5. Select “Follow” in the upper right hand corner of your profile page to receive email alerts for any new publications associated with you, as well as new citations of your work. (Tip: you can “follow” new publications and new citations for any researcher with a public Google Scholar profile, not just yourself)

     

    Screenshot highlighting location of follow button in top right of screen.

What next? 

  • Consider whether you want to add a picture to your profile
  • Use “Alerts” to create email alerts for new publications that match any search terms you choose
  • Enhance your profile by adding co-authors: click “Edit” next to “Co-authors” on the right-hand side of your profile page

Learn more: 

Preparing for the next challenge: 

Congratulations! You've completed Day 2 of the Research Impact Challenge! Your Google Scholar profile is now set up, ready to add your new publications as they appear on the web, and you’ll receive email alerts every time Google Scholar finds a new publication or citation that it associates with you. 

Do you have scholarly work that Google Scholar hasn’t yet indexed and connected to your profile? What about other kinds of work, like syllabi, instructional materials, or slide decks that you'd like to save and share with colleagues? One way to make your work more visible to Google Scholar and to others is to deposit it in an appropriate digital repository. Tomorrow’s challenge will show you how!