Guide. Google Scholar: registration and login

Google Scholar, otherwise known as Google Academy, is a global scientific literature aggregator with international recognition. There are many opportunities for researchers within this platform, especially in the context of searching for materials and building an author's portfolio. Let's look at how to register in Google Scholar, and how to correctly fill out a profile within this platform. 

Google Scholar: login Step-by-step guide for new users

To properly set up your author profile in Google Scholar, it is necessary to follow a few simple rules and, most importantly, to be attentive to each of the three steps in setting up your page. Go to https://scholar.google.com, create your profile via Google Mail, or log in with your existing email account. All necessary options are located on the “My profile” tab. 

If you haven't accessed your profile or haven't filled it out before, you must go through a three-step setup system. The first step is to provide contact information. Pay attention to such aspects:

1. Full name – this field must be filled out strictly according to the contact information indicated in the research papers. Otherwise, the research materials will not be displayed correctly in the profile.
2. Other possible variants of the name (not more than 2), which consider the peculiarities of transliteration or translation, should also be specified.
3. Scientist affiliation, which is also optimal to fill out according to scientific papers
4. E-mail.
5. Determined several keywords which describe Your area of scientific interest the most.
6. Leave the link to Your place of work (optional). 

In the second step of filling out an author profile in Google Academy, the system will automatically search for articles and sort them by two parameters: "Group", - materials united in groups by one or another characteristic; "Articles" - a simple list of works. 

Select your materials from the list (using the boxes on the left) and proceed to the third step of completing your profile by clicking on "Selected" in the upper right corner of the screen. 

The next (and last) step of completing your Google Scholar profile requires setting up technical points, which include:

1. Updates on metrics (automatic or through e-mail confirmation).
2. Profile visibility.
3. Email notification: when new materials are added to the platform that is relevant to the scholar's research interests; when the work is cited by other researchers. 

Google Scholar. Editing the registered users’ profiles

Editing the profile for researchers who have already gone through the above-mentioned procedure, goes by a somewhat simplified algorithm. You should follow points 1 and 2 of the instructions (login to the platform and go to the "My profile" tab).

Then the author will be able to edit the:

1. User’s photo.
2. Full name.
3. E-mail synchronization.
4. Updating the research material list.
5. Making changes in the existing list of authors' works.
6. Co-author information. 

Google Scholar ID: how to get it?

Google Scholar author’s identifier is shown in the address field on the “My profile” tab (left upper corner) as https://scholar.google.com.ua/citations?user=ХХХХХХХХХХХХХ, where Х- Google Scholar ID.

The author's identifier is the fragment of the address link after and before the "=" signs. 

Author's scientometric values: citations and Google Scholar Hirsch index

Scientometric values are also an important component of the author's Google Academy profile and are also displayed on the "My Profile" tab. The platform calculates both overall metrics, for all years of scholarly activity and the past five years.

Primary metrics in the platform are:

1. Citation index – the overall number of references of other researchers.
2. h-index (Hirsch index) – a correlation of works to their citations.

Google Academy also calculates an index that is considered an "alternative" metric, the i10 index. It displays the number of research with 10 or more citations (3). 

The natural improvement of these values contributes to an increase in the importance of the scientist, and his/her authority both regionally and internationally.

If you need to increase the main scientometric indicators of the author within Google Scholar, contact our specialists. We will provide a full audit of your profile in the platform, considering the necessary corrections and technical issues, support by a personal manager, and organic improvement of the necessary values. Pick the "Google Scholar citations" service and we will contact you shortly! 

Let us remind you that the material "Publication Scopus / Web of Science publication or CCES? What should a scientist choose?" has been released recently.