Overview

Researcher profiles and networks can be used to establish a clear online presence and develop research networks.  Some profile tools also incorporate unique researcher identifiers that assist with clarifying a researcher's identity. 

Profile sites can be used to: 

• help researchers, students and funding bodies find you and your publications
• promote your skills and knowledge
• connect with other researchers
• increase your research impact by disseminating your work
• list all of your publications in one place, making it easy for others to identify your work
• develop a reputation beyond La Trobe University
• track your citation metrics.

This guide provides an overview of prominent researcher profiles and networks.

• create profiles on sites that rank highly in search results
• maintain your profiles regularly to ensure they are accurate, current and complete
• manage your name by setting up an ORCID identifier and include your ORCID ID on your profile sites, social media accounts and email signature
• link all of your profiles together from a personal home page
• learn how to create and manage a digital profile with the RED team's Digital Academic module

There are risks involved with sharing your information on profile sites.

We recommend that you: 

• manage your privacy by only sharing information that you are happy to share to others
• ensure that you only share information that you can legally disclose to others
• manage the security of your information by reviewing the user agreement of each profile tool so that you know who accesses your data, how it is stored and what you can control 

Before you upload any of your publications to a profile site you should check to see if your journal has any publishing restrictions on the Sherpa/RoMEO website otherwise you may not be legally entitled to share the full-text of your work.