Manage Your Research Identity and Track Your Impact

This guide is designed to assist you in taking charge of your online identity as a researcher, and tracking the impact of your research and publications. Use the left hand panel to navigate to different sections of the guide.

What does online identity management entail? There are three major components: 

1. Creating a unique online ID that sets you apart from other authors with the same last name and initials.
2. Creating a profile on various academic and professional social media sites in order to publicize your qualifications and publications.
3. Using online tools to track who's reading, citing and otherwise using your work. Traditional academic metrics exist at the author, journal, and article level. Some of the newer, non-academic measures of impact are referred to as "altmetrics."

Why should you invest the time and effort in this?

• It's the new CV - a strong online profile will help you with postgraduate, job, promotion and tenure applications. 
• Granting agencies may want to see some of this information on grant applications. 
• It helps you identify potential collaborators or mentors working in the same areas at other institutions.
• It gives you a sense of the impact of your own work.
• Organizing all of this early in your career makes it much easier to keep on top of as you advance in your career and build your body of work.