Scholar Identification Systems: Researcher ID

ResearcherID is a service provided by Thomson Reuters, the publisher of Web of Science (Science Citation Index, Social Science Citation Index and Arts & Humantities Citation Index). Through the ResearcherID registration site, scholars can request that a ResearcherID be assigned, provide information about their affiliation(s), describe their field of research (by providing keywords describing research), add information about their publications, and URLs for websites and blogs.

Researcher ID has several advantages, including:

• Available free.
• Brings work by an author together under one ID, solving the problem of indexes including various names and name forms.
• Can be updated by importing files from a citation manager (EndNote) or another database (accepts RIS format).
• Provides citation metrics (which may differ from Google Scholar's citation metrics).
• Researchers can select privacy settings.
• Searchable; users can search for others in a subject area.

There could be some disadvantages to the ResearcherID system:

• Provided by a commercial firm (Thomson Reuters).
• Free service (don’t know if this could change).
• Does not provide metrics on all items (only items available in Web of Science [Science Citation Index]).
• Metrics may not be accurate.