Research information management
Research information management (RIM) refers to the collection and reuse of information and data about research and scholarly activities. This page connects RIM resources to UMN researchers and administrators, as well as students and community members who want to identify campus experts.
Experts@Minnesota Find, connect, collaborate
Experts@Minnesota contains public profiles of University faculty and staff, and public pages for departments, colleges, campuses, and centers.
Edit your profile
Add publications
- Adding publications and other research activities to Experts@Minnesota
Use Experts@Minnesota
- Find collaborators and use data in Experts@Minnesota
Other RIM resources
ORCID
- ORCID iDs (and why you should have one)
- Connect and automate your scholarly profiles
- More about scholarly identity
Demonstrating impact
RIM use cases
Scholarly identity
Scholarly identity is what people—fellow researchers, students, or potential employers—find when they look up a researcher online. This may include:
- presentations and publications,
- fellowships and grants, and/or
- courses taught.
- Research interests
Think of it as an online curriculum vitae or resume. It’s optional to manage this identity, but it exists whether managed or not.
Managing scholarly identity
What are the results when you search your own name? How long does it take to find your work? Does a personal social media account appear first? Think of managing your scholarly identity as taking control of your digital narrative. Start reviewing your identity early and often as possible.
Managing and taking control of scholarly identity can:
- increase the discoverability of your work and set yourself apart,
- enable research relationships across institutions, and
- reduce false or misleading information in search results.
Take your first steps towards managing your scholarly identity.
- Keep a list of your publications, datasets, and grey literature.
- Use online services such as Experts@Minnesota, ORCiD, Google Scholar, and LinkedIn.
Consider what you want kept private and use privacy settings
- Protect your profile and feeds.
- Hide profiles from search engines.
- Lock comment sections of blogs.
ORCiD ID
Every scholar should have an ORCiD ID. An ORCiD ID is
- unique to you (unlike your name),
- persistent throughout your career (unlike your institutional affiliations), and
- easy to get (under a minute at orcid.org).
Once you have created an ORCiD ID, write down the number and use it consistently. Many publishers and funders will ask for it, but add the number along with your name even if you aren't asked. Doing so will make it easier for any individual or service to pull together all of your research in one place, and you won't have to worry about losing a part of your scholarly identity if you change your name or move to a different institution.
For more information about ORCiD, visit our ORCiD web page.
Profile options
Experts@Minnesota
Faculty members, post-doctoral associates, or researchers with an appointment at the Twin Cities or Duluth campuses probably have an Experts@Minnesota profile. Experts@Minnesota
- informs the public about the research work of the University of Minnesota, and
- provides a tool for researchers to find and learn about each other
Publication and other research output information stored in Experts@Minnesota can be
- used for internal reporting, analysis, and decision making, and
- repurposed for departmental, center, and faculty websites.
Learn more about enhancing your profile.
ORCiD profile
Create an ORCiD ID, to get an ORCiD profile page.
The page is useful as a way to ensure everything that should be associated with you is associated with you. Add other names you have used when publishing, organizational affiliations, and identifiers from other databases.
Grant permissions to databases such as Experts@Minnesota, Web of Science, or Scopus to automatically update ORCID when they encounter new publications in your record.
Web of Science Author Record
Web of Science tracks publications from over 24,000 journals. Anyone who has published in one will have an author record that they can claim. Occasionally there might be more than one author record assigned to one individual. This can be because of name changes, variations in how your name is represented (e.g., using a middle initial or a shortened version of your name), changes in affiliation, or publishing across many different disciplines. Once you create an account within Web of Science and claim your author record(s), you can request that they be merged and suggest corrections if you find an error.
Merge author records from the Author Search Results page.
For more on merging author records, visit Clarivate's website.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar profiles pull together your existing publications, and notify you when Google Scholar encounters new publications that may be yours. Your profile is included in Google Scholar searches for your name, and your page shows links to co-authors as well as citation information.
Amazon
While not a scholarly platform, Amazon is used by readers everywhere to buy and review books. You can claim your works and add a biography, photo, and other links.