Researcher profiles - which one to use?

Are you confused by all the researcher profile options available? Not surprising

This post on ScienceOpen, "Researcher #profilefatigue – what it is and why it’s exhausting!" outlines the importance of creating a researcher profile and promotes the use of ORCID

Organization	Status
ORCID	Non-profit: independent, community driven
Google Scholar	Search: Google
Researcher ID	Publisher: Thomson Reuters
Scopus Author ID	Publisher: Elsevier
Mendeley	Publisher: Elsevier
Academia.edu	Researcher Network: Academia.edu
ResearchGate	Researcher Network: ResearchGate

Avoiding author ambiguity: 10 things you need to know about ORCID (and ResearcherID) right now

(IMPORTANT:  ResearcherID and ORCID are complementary attribution identifiers. They go hand-in-hand and it is essential that scholarly authors and researchers have both. ORCID is a platform-agnostic identifier, whereas the ResearcherID identifier is specific to Thomson Reuters - more about integration of ResearcherID and ORCID)

ORCID IDs are permanent identifiers for researchers. Community uptake has increased tenfold over the past year, and continues to be adopted by new institutions, funders, and journals on a daily basis.  

ORCID may prove to be one of the most important advances in scholarly communication in the past ten years.

Here are ten things you need to know about ORCID and its importance to you.

ORCIDs protects your unique scholarly identity
Creating an ORCID identifier takes 30 seconds
ORCID is getting big fast
ORCID lasts longer than your email address
ORCID supports 37 types of “works,” from articles to dance performances
You control who views your ORCID information
ORCID is glue for all your research services
Journals, funders & institutions are moving to ORCID
When everyone has an ORCID identifier, scholarship gets better
ORCID is open source, open data, and community-driven

Make sure that your research is attached to your name - Author identifers

It is advisable for researchers to register for both ResearcherID and ORCID

ResearcherID provides a solution to the author ambiguity problem within the scholarly research community. Each member is assigned a unique identifier to enable researchers to manage their publication lists, track their times cited counts and h-index, identify potential collaborators and avoid author mis-identification. In addition, your ResearcherID information integrates with the Web of Science and is ORCID compliant, allowing you to claim and showcase your publications from a single one account. Search the registry to find collaborators, review publication lists and explore how research is used around the world!

ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between you and your professional activities ensuring that your work is recognized. (Learn more about ORCID

Why do you need both identifiers?

Even if a researcher has an existing ORCID through another resource, it’s important that it be linked to his/her ResearcherID profile for a proper trail of information down the road. ResearcherID is the primary place where Times Cited data in the Web of Science™ Core Collection appears, thus underscoring the importance of having both identifiers, and having them connected (ResearcherID and ORCID).