Everything You Should Know About Your Academic Identity

Abstract

During this workshop, we will address different issues related to academic identity and publishing. Young scholars should be aware that often other academics’ first impressions are not based on a face-to-face meeting but on a “paper trail,” which these days can often be digital. Understanding how an academic identity is established early on in one’s career allows scholars to promote their scholarship in an easily discoverable body of work. For women, the issue of academic identity is complicated by several factors, not the least of which is the misunderstanding that it is shameless self-promotion. In this workshop, we’ll present the rationale and tools for developing and promoting an academic identity, encouraging women to take a more active part in their academic success.

Choosing a consistent name for publishing is the first step in establishing an academic identity. However, choosing a consistent name is easier said than done as some publications only use an author’s initials rather than full name, co-authors may not realize what name you choose to use, or your name has changed. Establishing an ORCID, Google Scholar Profile, and other profiles and IDs is crucial to ensuring that all your work is properly credited to yourself and that others’ research is not inadvertently attributed to you.

Search committees and especially promotion committees use various publication metrics as one evaluation criterion. In addition to number of publications and journal rankings, traditional metrics include number of citations (with and without self-citation), average citations, and h-index. Alternative metrics (also known as altmetrics) are also becoming more common and include views and downloads; discussions on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media; saves in bookmarks or Mendeley; and recommendations in databases and networking cites.

Making sure that others can easily discover your publications is key to your works being read and cited. Traditional databases are still heavily used to find research articles, but new interfaces are emerging. What are these new interfaces? Are they accepted or promoted at your institution? How can you best take advantage of them to gain recognition in your field and earn tenure? What altmetric and academic social media sites are available to you and why is it also in your institution’s best interest to become aware of these resources?

This workshop will be a combination of demonstration and Q&A.