TIP: FIND YOUR CITATIONS |
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POST DATE
January 2, 2007, 7 PM
POSTED BY
Geoff Davis
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Quick tip: Want to see who is citing your work? Use Google Scholar! Find your papers by searching for your name (if it's distinctive) or by searching for the titles of your papers. Helpful hints:
For each search result, you'll see a link entitled "Cited by N" (where N is the number of citations) underneath. Click the link to see a list of papers citing your work. This could be a big help if you're looking for a postdoctoral position: people who have cited your work clearly have similar interests and are already familiar with your work. |
Geoff -
This is terrific - sort of a vanity-Google for geeks! However young scientists with the misfortune of being given prosaic names may face a challenge: how can I be found if my name is the same as millions of others (try searching for D Patel, X Chen, or R Smith).
So I suggest young scientists add an unusual letter as a middle name. Instead of Peter S. Fiske, how about Peter X. Fiske? I'm sure to be found much more easily.
Women scientists have always faced the dilemma of a disjointed citation record when they change their name after marriage. So, with Google Scholar producing a comparable dilemma for everyone, maybe we should adopt professional names or "handles" to use on our publications: Sharon "Mad Dog" MacKenzie, or for those with a more Native American instinct: "Dances With Pipettes"
If you are going to choose a handle, by all means choose one near the start of the alphabet if you are in a field that lists author names alphabetically. Otherwise you could be the victim of *alphabetical discrimination* !
You may think I jest. Not so! This is a [documented phenomenon](http://www.stanford.edu/~leinav/Surnames_Chronicle.pdf)!
I love economists.
Steve Ceci has helpfully pointed out that you can do the same thing with ISI's [Web of Science](http://isiknowledge.com/) (a non-free service available on many campuses). Web of Science had about 25% more citations in his case, mostly, he speculates, because it is more up to date. So if you have access, try WoS too.