As a graduate student, establishing your online researcher identity at an early stage is more vital than you might realize.
Working as a graduate student can be exciting, but it can also feel complex and intimidating at times, regardless of your professional environment.
This is why the importance of building an online researcher identity at an early stage cannot be overstated.
As you gain experience in your field of research, you can impact more and more as you build your own unique identity.
The world of research and communication is increasingly digitized. With so much content being published online every day, it can be challenging to stand out.
In order to increase citations and establish your research identity, you have to maximize the reach and visibility of your work. Whether starting from scratch or looking to enhance your existing online presence, here are three easy ways to build your online researcher identity as a graduate student.
Get your name out there
Take part in conferences
Presentations are a great way to gain feedback on your work (helping you turn conference papers into journal articles), network with potential collaborators, and interview for jobs.
Additionally, attending conferences in your research domain can effectively establish and build your online researcher identity. You will be exposed to the right people at such conferences.
This is an excellent opportunity to meet leaders in your field and develop relationships.
You can use websites such as papercrowd.com or cfplist.com to find relevant conferences.
Support open access
It is imperative to make your research accessible to other members of the community so that they will be able to read and cite it. This will increase your visibility.
In other words, you should embrace the available visibility options for researchers before making yourself visible.
The outputs of your research can be made open in two ways: either by publishing them in open-access journals or submitting them to an open-access repository like your institution’s repository (for preprints and published work) or a subject-specific repository like ArXiv, bioRxiv, or SocArXiv.
To enhance your scholarly reputation, store your data in a repository such as Figshare, Dryad, or Open Science Framework and link it to your research outputs.
Also, GitHub is an excellent platform to share your open-source codes and software. If you are working in a computer science domain, GitHub is your online CV.
In addition to building your online reputation, you can maximize your impact and establish new networks with other scientists and a broader audience by using social media.
With so many people joining social media nowadays, it is a great and quick way to introduce your research and establish a unique identity.
Use social media such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu, and LinkedIn to build your professional network.
Share your thoughts and findings on Twitter (with a link to your blog if you have one) with hashtags to help people find and follow you. Make sure to get the most out of hashtags. Tweet at conferences and engage with your followers.
Ensure your conference presentation is shared on SlideShare and other social media platforms.
Build and update your online profiles
Distinguish yourself from every other researcher
Creating a unique and persistent identifier that will be attached to all of your publications and grant applications will help ensure proper attribution of your scholarly work.
Unique Identifiers eliminate any confusion surrounding names (similar names, name changes, inconsistent name formats, etc.) to ensure you get recognition for your work. The main identifiers are ORCiD and Web of Science ResearcherID
Use your institution’s resources.
Make sure your bio is up-to-date on your institution or department’s website, and deposit your research outputs in the institutional repository (including unpublished works like theses, working papers, and technical reports). You can make your research more visible in search engines by placing it in the repository. Make use of your institution’s tools to the fullest extent possible by contacting your subject specialist librarian.
Create an online researcher profile
If you have a Publons profile, you will have a better chance of being found when other researchers search for your type of research.
Publons is the only profile where you can track your publications, citation metrics, peer review history, and editorial affiliations all in one place. With Publons, you can maintain a verified work record by integrating with the Web of Science and thousands of scholarly journals. By signing up for Publons, you will receive a Web of Science ResearcherID and be able to manage your publication records.
Being different from everyone else is the first rule of standing out. Researchers can network through online tools such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu and Google Scholar, but you will still be just one of many.
Your visibility is not enhanced by just having an online profile.
However, there is another reason to leave these ‘gated communities of science. It is increasingly imperative for researchers to engage with the general public and ensure that their research impacts society as a whole, for better or worse.
This should be the ultimate goal of any researcher.
A personal website is a great way to overcome both of these obstacles.
However, Just having a page with a photo and your publications isn’t enough to pique people’s interest.
Share your OWN story, vision and opinions on a personal website and get more attention for your research.
This is the best way to get your name out there as a researcher. It won’t take long for people to respond to your content if you have the mindset to help others with your knowledge. Consequently, you will be able to make a more significant impact in your field of research.
That’s why it’s crucial to have your professional website to tell your story and make an impression. By having your own website, you can share your vision, share your opinions, and show off your work (with images and video!)
In addition, it’s the best way to be found on search engines.
The best name for your domain is your full name, not a shorthand or research project name.
You don’t know when you might switch fields or occupations, so you want to be found when people search for your name.
Therefore, it is always safer to use your own name.
Conclusion
Getting noticed isn’t easy, but these simple steps can help you build your online research identity. Building your online researcher identity can enhance your work’s discoverability, citations, and networking opportunities, strengthening your reputation.
Images courtesy: Image by Freepik
