Researcher Profiles and Identifiers

You may choose to utilize multiple sites, but selecting which one(s) are most relevant and worthy of the time to maintain is key.

Some factors to consider:

• Discipline: Where are scholars and researchers in your discipline frequently creating profiles?  A humanities or social work researcher would get more visibility when creating profiles on sites used by their peers rather than sites for a STEM audience.
• Sharing Work: How do you want to share your work, and in what formats? By default, most for-profit academic publishers (e.g., Wiley, Elsevier, Taylor & Francis) do not allow sharing final PDF versions of work they publish (although an author addendum could change this). Sharing links such as digital object identifiers (DOIs) or permanent links that lead to copies of work are, however, typically acceptable.  
• Grants and Funders: Some federal grants or other research funders may require applicants to create a profile (e.g., NSF, SciENcv for NIH grant applications).
• Privacy: Check for privacy options, especially if you wish to limit your visibility or what is shown to select viewers.