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Comparison table

Some platforms encourage users to create an online profile. Managing an online profile allows users to control and manage the information available about them ensuring that others discover accurate and up-to-date information. 

To varying degrees, these profiles can store and even automate the collection of metrics. Below is a comparison of some of the most widely used tools. You can learn more about the specific tools, and how to set up a profile by clicking the appropriate tab below. If you have any questions about the tools, please contact your subject liaison. 

Google Scholar Impact Story Mendeley Research Gate Academia.edu
Biography No, but it allows for affiliations and research interests No, but it will pull title/affiliations from your ORCID profile Yes Yes Yes
Publication List Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Linked Publications Yes Yes, if added to your ORCID account Yes Possible Possible
Adding (semi) automatic publications Yes, but it is not always accurate Yes, if added to your ORCID account Yes, through search engines and RIS or BibTeX files when they are available Yes, via PubMed, IEEE, Cite Seer, and BMC Yes, via Crossref, Microsoft AS, PubMed, and ArVix
Metrics Available Total number of citations, h-index, i10-index A variety of altmetrics Publication counts, Citations, Views, and Readers Reads, Citations count,  Profile Views, and h-index Document and page views
Social Media Yes Yes No Yes Yes

 

Setting Up Profiles

Your Google Scholar profile will include a list of the articles you've entered, with "cited by" links for each of them. Google Scholar will display a graph of your citation activity and calculate your total number of citations, h-index, and i10-index. The profile also includes a "recent" version of those three metrics, based on activity in the last five years.

To set up your profile in Google Scholar, follow the steps in the Create A Google Scholar Profile chapter in the OU Impact Challenge. 

An ImpactStory profile will list a variety of metrics and altmetrics for each entered item. In addition to the number of citations that each entry has received (per data from Scopus), it will also list such altmetrics as tweets and bookmarks. This source can be a valuable option for discovering impact outside of formal academic citation.

To set up your ImpactStory profile, follow the steps below.

  • Go to impactstory.org. 

  • Click to join with your ORCID. If you don't already have an ORCID, click the link to register. 

  • Your impact story profile will automatically sync with your information from your ORCID. You can also connect your twitter account to your impact story profile.

To create your Mendeley profile and find out more about the platform, visit the OU Impact Challenge chapter, Using Mendeley and Zotero.

Research Gate is designed to be an online research community and functions as a social network for researchers. Users can share updates about their research and full papers, and they can follow others to receive updates about their works. In addition to reads, citation counts, profile views, and h-index, Research Gate has its own metric called RG score. As it is created by a propriety algorithm, it is not clear how this number is generated; therefore, it should be used only cautiously. 

To create a ResearchGate profile go to the OU Impact Challenge chapter, Understanding Academia.edu and ResearchGate. 

Like Research Gate, Academia.edu is designed to be an online research community with a social network component. You can upload papers and follow other scholars. Before uploading any of your papers, please ensure that you have permission to do so. Academia.edu does not offer traditional metrics but does show document and page views.  Please note: Although the site has an .edu domain, it is not associated with an educational institution.

To learn more about Academia.edu and to create a profile, go to the OU Impact Challenge chapter, Understanding Academia.edu and ResearchGate.