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How to enhance your profile on academic portals, social media, and personal websites?
*Corresponding author: Himel Mondal, Department of Physiology, Fakir Mohan Medical College and Hospital, Balasore, Odisha, India. himelmkcg@gmail.com
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Received: ,
Accepted: ,
How to cite this article: Mondal H, Mondal S. How to enhance your profile on academic portals, social media, and personal websites? CosmoDerma 2022;2:7.
Abstract
With the advent of online publication and indexing of articles in online databases, author profiling became an inseparable part of the publication. Although databases such as PubMed Central and Scopus maintain an author profile for their internal records, it is inadequate to reflect all the publications of an author. Hence, an author can open accounts in various academic portals for enlisting the publication, conference, achievements, and make a connection with researchers for collaborative work. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn can also be used for the dissemination of current research knowledge and make a network of professionals. In addition, personal websites and blog posts can also augment the credible presence of an author. In this review article, we describe how to enhance the online profile of an author in academic portals, social media, and personal websites.
Keywords
Academia
Branding
Networking
Social media
ResearchGate
Publons
Profile
INTRODUCTION
The career of a medical doctor primarily takes three avenues – treating patients either in government or private settings, teaching medical and paramedical students, and researching various topics. All the three avenues are interconnected and progress together with the advent of research in the basic and clinical wing.[1] For the advancement of science, the research knowledge is disseminated by publication in a suitable journal. Medical journals are now accessed by a huge base of readers thanks to the open-access online publication.[2] At present, the impact of a paper is judged both by citations in other research papers and mentions in other media such as newspapers, social media, Wikipedia, and blog posts.[3] Although, after publication, journals promote some of their papers on different social media, it is not feasible to highlight all the research publications. However, this can be handled by the author who published the paper. There are various online platforms where authors can promote their papers for a wider reach to make an impact. These platforms can be categorized into three groups – academic portals where published authors maintain their profiles, social media where researchers can be socially connected with an interested group of people, and personal endeavors such as a blog post and personal websites.[4,5]
In this article, we reviewed how an author can enhance their profiles in academic portals, social media, and personal web pages for wider dissemination of articles, improving personal and journal impact, and getting higher chances of collaboration.
RATIONALITY OF ONLINE PROFILES
With the advancement of email communication, we get updates about the new issue of a journal immediately and can browse open-access journals on smartphones and personal computers. The paywalled journals, if the subscriptions are bought, can be accessed from the library computers. As the journals became online, authors’ details are also available along with the published article. Many of the journals are now encouraging the authors to use identifier such as Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier (ORCiD) that links the authors’ online profile.[6] Some journals also suggest adding the social media credential to the publication. In addition, many of the journals add short biography which can be linked to a personal website of the author for a detailed contribution list. Hence, the online profiling of the author is an inseparable part of modern age scientific publications.
The online profile of a researcher can be maintained in three categories of websites – academic portals, social media, and personal profile in website or blog. Some of the portals are shown in [Table 1].[7]
| Category | Title |
|---|---|
| Academic portals | ORCiD |
| Publons | |
| ResearchGate | |
| Google Scholar | |
| Academia | |
| Loop profile | |
| Microsoft Academic | |
| Impactstory | |
| ScienceOpen | |
| SciProfiles | |
| Scopus Author ID | |
| Social media | |
| Personal endeavor | Blog post |
| Websites | |
ORCiD: Open researcher and contributor identifier
Bibliographic databases such as Medline, PubMed Central, or Scopus provide author profiling services on their database. However, published articles that are not indexed by a particular indexing database do not come under the author profile created in the database.[8] For example, the first author of this article has a total of 99 published articles, and among them, PubMed shows 37 articles and Scopus shows 34 documents as the other articles are not indexed by those bibliographic databases. This necessitates creating a presence where all the articles are enlisted with relevant links to the articles.
The internet has become inseparable from academic life.[9] The usage of social media makes online presence more interactive. A medical doctor who practices can enhance his reach to a wider segment of patients, a medical researcher or teacher can disseminate the research with groups and make a network for a fruitful collaboration. The networking not only helps in collaboration but enables the interested one being updated with new knowledge, updates about conferences, recent news coverage, etc. Along with individual authors, journals may also create and maintain their social media accounts for quick dissemination about newly published articles and updates including “call for papers.”[10]
A personal profile like creating a website or blog can also help in the promotion of professional life. A well-maintained website or blog may enlist the research articles, teaching materials, instructional videos, and successful treatment stories.[11] The website can easily be integrated with social media for a better reach to peer groups or common people.
HOW TO ENHANCE ONLINE PROFILE
If we plant a lemon tree and leave it unattended on the roof, the tree may or may not survive due to lack of water or may not grow well due to lack of fertilizer in the soil. Hence, if we plant a tree, we must water it timely and add organic fertilizer for the desired growth. In addition, we should invite insects from a nearby lemon tree to get lemon. After opening a profile in an online platform, the profile should be regularly updated and there should be an engagement with the profile for optimum usage of the online profile [Figure 1]. The common practice to enhance the profile is summarized in [Table 2] and discussed individually in the following sections.[12-14]
| Academic portals | Social media | Website and blog |
|---|---|---|
| • Use correct and uniform name across all the profiles • Use a clear profile photograph. • Update immediately after a publication, peer review, editorial work, new qualification, or achievements • Edit if any erroneous publication is added to the profile • Engage in academic activities (e.g., question-answer and response to a query in research) where allowed • Interconnect various academic profiles |
• Use real name and avoid fancy decoration in name • Use a clear profile photograph • May maintain a separate profile for personal and professional purpose • Do not post any personal matter in the professional profile • Visit regularly and engage in academic discussion • Make connection • Update all your achievement • Interconnect with other social networks and integrate with author profiles • Share success stories with those who would like to enhance practice |
• Use a professional-looking theme, URL, and simple fonts • Add a biography along with a photograph • Update with frequent interval • Post about topic related to research and recent updates • Make your contact email or phone number active |
- Major three steps to enhance authors’ profile in academic portals, social media, and blogs or websites. The logos and trademarks are owned by the relevant organizations or companies and used in this figure for illustrative purpose for non-commercial academic dissemination of information.
ACADEMIC PORTALS
ORCiD
Any interested author or researcher can create a profile in the ORCiD portal with academic details such as biography, employment, education and qualifications, publications, and peer review. Adding a short and catchy biography with a topic of interest would give the visitor the first impression. Link of personal websites may be added under “Websites and Social links” to redirect the viewer to other professional profiles. Other identifiers such as Scopus Author ID and Loop profile can also be added to link online profiles. Adding relevant keywords in the profile according to research interest help increase discoverability on online search engines. A complete and updated profile is what journal editors or reviewers (if open peer review) may check before starting the peer review. If the journal allows integrating or mentioning ORCiD with the author, it should be done without hesitation, even if the profile is not completely updated. Mentioning ORCiD helps in resolving the ambiguity of the authors’ names. This 16-digit unique identifier may also be used in other academic or social media profiles to redirect to the unique profile.[15,16]
Publons
This portal was created for providing a pool of reviewers with due credit for their peer review and editorial works.[17] Publons highlights the number of publications, citations, and peer reviews on the landing page of the profile. Whenever a new peer review is done for a journal, the “thank you” email should be forwarded to Publons for adding the review in the profile under “verified review.” In addition, post-publication peer review (e.g., review for F1000Research is always post-publication) can also be added personally. However, these do not come under “verified reviews.” Novice reviewers can invite peer review by showing review interest to target journals. Sharing email should be granted so that the journal editor, if interested can contact via email. From the community section, a journal can be endorsed for helping the community identify good journals. Publons also has a link to “Web of Science Academy” from where free certified courses can be done to boost the understanding of publishing, research, and peer-review methods. When someone else reviews your paper and it is traceable, thanking the reviewer is a good gesture. In the case of post-publication open peer review, thanking and adding a reply to the reviewer can also increase engagement.
ResearchGate
ResearchGate provides a published author a profile that contains the introduction about the researcher, published articles, experiences, education, scholarships, membership of the scientific community, etc.[18] A published author can open an account with a public email address. Those who do not have published article need an institutional email address to open an account. Adding the proper name of the institution and position is of utmost importance as researchers are grouped according to the institutions and it increases the institutions’ score. Profiles can be enhanced by adding a catchy introduction, updated degree, and recent publications. Networking scope can be enhanced by following relevant researchers and following the followers. Inviting all coauthors can help in increasing the visibility of the research. Asking questions and answering questions can boost your credibility and also may increase traffic to the profile. In addition, recommending and sharing important articles help in disseminating articles you like. A researcher can send a direct message about collaboration or any supplementary materials to your research paper. A timely reply is a good practice. When a collaborative or individual work is being started, a project can also be added to the profile to appraise the community about your current works.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is the most comprehensive source of updated articles and citations from maximum sources.[19,20] Along with the list, it shows the h-index and i10-index in the profile. The account can only be fully activated with an institutional email address. The Google Scholar account helps the researcher to be shown in internet search results. Hence, uniform name, institution name, and keywords are the important aspect for being discovered by search engines. Although the research papers are automatically added to the profile, sometimes wrong addition may occur. These articles can be removed from the profile to decrease inadvertent citations. The list of coauthors can be added and edited to show the network or collaborator.
Academia
Academia is another portal where the authors can maintain an account without paying any fees.[21] However, the majority of their services are paid. A researcher can add a short biography, related keywords, and profile photo to augment the presence. Eventually, the articles can be added. A wide range of articles can be added that include published papers, unpublished drafts, book chapters, pre-print articles, and dissertations. In addition, a researcher may think of publishing (by paying fees) “Letter” that includes a short article, brief report, or case study. These letters are one sort of reviewer-screened publication like a journal. Furthermore, videos can also be added that may contain class lectures, conference presentations, research abstracts, etc. When the papers are crawled from other databases by academia, there may be an error in the attached Portable Document Format (PDF). Hence, after confirming the suggestion for an addition, it is wise to download the PDF for checking and upload the correct one, if there is an error.
Loop
Loop profiles are provided by Frontiers publisher.[22] This also enables a researcher to freely open the account and use its features. A researcher would get the profile with the degree, current positions, biography, other social profile, education, honors, and society membership, along with the list of the total publications. However, the major limitation is the publisher-specific impact. The citations are from Scopus, the views and downloads are of Frontiers published papers.
Microsoft Academic
Microsoft Academic is also a public domain where an account can be maintained by an author. A short biography and mentioning ORCiD keep the profile updated. The portal helps the authors in listing the publications, provides information about citations, a year-wise graphical presentation of publication and citation. The citation count may vary from that found in Google Scholar.[19] However, the citation count is more than that found in Scopus and Web of Sciences. The paper that cites the published articles is also shown in detail. In addition, journals, where the author published the articles, are shown with their indigenous saliency score.
Impactstory
Impactstory, along with listing the publications, shows the research impact of an author on various platforms as Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, and news media.[23] Achievement of an author is also shown in domains such as percentage of open access, readability of the papers, where the publication got the greatest hit, or where the author is placed in terms of Wikipedia mentions. Maintaining a profile in Impactstory can be shared in other author portals or social media for showing the achievement to interested peers.
ScienceOpen
All the details available in ORCiD can be imported to the ScienceOpen platform. The scientific profile contains the discipline, keywords, education, and a customized URL for the researchers’ profile. Authors can access the statistics about total publications, journals, number of coauthors, referenced publications, and citations. This platform does not only provide authors to create a profile but provides an opportunity to add reviews, manage follows and followers, and discover articles in various domains.[24] The article list shows with Altmetric score, summary, abstract, thumbnails, and keywords. In addition, additional research data can be added to augment the discoverability of the research data. The profiles can easily be shared on social media for increasing the traffic to the profile and getting new connections.
SciProfiles
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute has introduced the SciProfiles. This profile also enables academicians to highlight their published research in peer communities.[25] On the profile page, the researcher can add basic information such as the ORCiD, keywords, short biography, publications, conference, and projects. According to the keywords, it provides a feed for related articles to read. The articles can be shared online or given a rating on overall merit, novelty, significance, presentation, or scientific soundness. Authors can manage the followers and follows and make a connection with authors all over the world.
Scopus author ID
Scopus Author ID cannot be generated by an author. It is automatically allotted after the first publication indexed in Scopus. The profile then can be managed by the authors. The ORCiD can be integrated with a request for merging any duplicate account.[26] The profile identifier can be added to other author profiles or social media to redirect an interested reader to the profile.
SOCIAL MEDIA
LinkedIn is a professional social media where an author can maintain an account to showcase recent publications, certifications, updates about conferences, collaboration calls, etc. A peer network can be maintained for scientific discussion as these users would get whatever the author updates.[27] A conference event can be added for a wider audience reach. A short article can also be written and posted for augmenting the scientific presence. This channel can also be used to share recently published articles. A poll can also be started for taking opinions on a general topic or research-related poll. Any complaints or personal arguments should not be posted in the professional profile.
Many researchers are now using the microblogging website for professional purposes. The account can be accompanied by a short biography with relevant hashtags.[28,29] The profile can also be converted to a professional profile by selecting the relevant field of the research. The location and websites of the researcher can be a good option to make a credible profile. If there is no personal website, an author profile (e.g., Publons and ORCiD) can be added as a website. Regular twitting recent scientific progress helps to disperse the knowledge with Twitter users. Retweeting and commenting also create a sense of presence to the peers and collaborators. This platform may also be used to conduct short health surveys and formative assessments for academic purposes. Many of the journals now allow authors to mention their Twitter accounts in the article. In addition, journals are also tweeting the recent publication and pre-print for wide media coverage and updating the target audience.
Academic posters and updates can be shared with followers on Instagram.[30] The graphical abstract of an article can be shared with the link of the article in an Instagram post. Even though the journal does not publish graphical abstract, it can be prepared to share on social media. Many of the journals also share the new articles in Instagram posts. However, the image should be well balanced with science and beautification.
Facebook may also be used by users to disseminate the research output.[31] However, it is important to share the content with a group of interested people.[32] The researcher may maintain a separate account for academic purposes where they can share updates about publication, conference, collaboration, meetings, conferences, etc.
PERSONAL ENDEAVOR
Personal website
A researcher can maintain a personal website to enlist the publications, awards, achievements, success stories in treatment, patients’ feedback, etc.[33] However, many a time, the websites are created with enthusiasm but later, it is not updated and it is difficult to contact the researcher or the doctor from the website contact details. Those who decide to open the website should be aware of the yearly charges that need to keep the website online. The website links can be used in various author portals or social media and can be used in short author biography published with journal articles.
Blog post
Those who cannot afford a personal website can use blogs for creating their online personal profile.[33] The blogs should be content rich for acceptance by peers. A regular post with an emphasis on the current topics would attract more visitors. Blog posts should be augmented by related images, audio clips, or video clips. Using a simple theme and organizing posts under different categories help readers easy navigation through the blog.
Although email is not a part of the core topic of this review, some email behavior may make an impact on the authors’ profiles.[34] Using a signature with non-fancy fronts along with degrees, position, institution, and author profile credentials such as ORCiD or Publons link has the potential to increase traffic to the profiles. This helps increase the chance of future collaborative opportunities. Always use grammar correcting software for avoiding unintentional errors.[35]
CONCLUSION
Author and researchers can maintain a profile in three broad categories of channels – academic portals, social media, and personal websites and blogs. These profiles help building credible online details of authors and practicing doctors. Opening the account is merely helpful for an optimum reach and impact. Hence, authors should regularly update the profiles and keep engaged with the networks for enhancing their online presence that may help in higher impact of the research.
Declaration of patient consent
Patient’s consent not required as there are no patients in this study.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
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