What is metadata and why should I bother with it?
"Metadata contains descriptive information embedded into an article that reflects its contents...Search engines rely heavily on underlying metadata when indexing articles and determining relevancy, so this information must be as complete and accurate as possible." Taryn Marks & Avery Le, Increasing Article Findability Online: The Four Cs of Search Engine Optimization, 109 Law Libr. J. 83, 92 (2017).
To add metadata to a Word document, click on "File" at the top of the page. Your screen should now say "Info." Look at the column on the right marked "Properties." You can edit your metadata by clicking on Properties > Advanced Properties (or, you can just enter text into the fields marked "Title" and "Tags"). The "Author" field should be prepopulated with your name, but it never hurts to verify correct spelling. Entering metadata now ensures that it will be present when you save your document as a PDF.
What is name variability and homography?
"Name variability occurs when authors publish under more than one name, including minor changes, such as sometimes using a middle initial and other times including the full middle name. Name homography occurs when more than one person publishes under the same name." Karen L. Wallace, Rebecca Lutkenhaus & David B. Hanson, Assessing HeinOnline as a Source of Scholarly Impact Metrics, 114 Law Libr. J. 395, 399 (2022).
What is ORCID and why should I bother with it?
"ORCID creates unique, persistent digital identification numbers that distinguish an author's work from other scholars and ensures that all of their research outputs and activities are correctly attributed to them and their affiliated institutions...This profile acts as a central record of scholarly activity through which authors, their institutions, and publishers can share information with integrated systems, including databases like HeinOnline...without the need to manually enter data into each system." Bonnie Shucha, Representing Law Faculty Scholarly Impact: Strategies for Improving Citation Metrics Accuracy and Promoting Scholarly Visibility, 40:2-3 Legal Reference Services Q. 81, 96 (2021).
Go to https://orcid.org/. Click on SIGN IN/REGISTER, then click on "Register now." Enter your first name, last name, and primary email. You will then see a screen asking to disambiguate yourself from other people with similar names. Click on the button indicating NONE OF THESE ARE ME, CONTINUE WITH REGISTRATION. Enter your password and select visibility settings. Click on REGISTER. You will receive a request to verify your email. Your ORCID iD is a 16-digit string of numerals. It is contained in the email and displayed on your record page. You can now edit your record to add titles, institutional affiliations, etc.
How do I link my ORCID iD to SSRN/Hein?
To link your ORCID iD to SSRN, login at https://hq.ssrn.com/UserHome.cfm. Click on My Account. Next, click on "Connect to my ORCID record." A pop-up box will appear. Enter your ORCID credentials and click SIGN IN. When asked to do so, authorize access to your record. Your accounts are now linked.
To link your ORCID iD to Hein, login at https://heinonline.org/HOL/Welcome. Click on MyHein Profile. Next, click on "Author Profile Admin." Click on the box entitled "Register or Connect your ORCID iD." Enter your ORCID credentials and click SIGN IN. When asked to do so, authorize access to your record. Your accounts are now linked.
You can also populate your ORCID record with articles from Hein. Go back to your profile and click on the box entitled "Send works to ORCID." A new page will appear. Use the checkboxes to select individual articles or use "Select All" to check every article (if an article is already included in your ORCID record, you will not be able to select it). Click Submit. Depending on the number of articles you are submitting, this could take a while. Once your accounts are linked, you will see a new tab on your profile entitled "ORCID Record." This tab lists books, book chapters, and interdisciplinary articles not normally indexed by Hein.
Do I really need a Google Scholar profile?
Yes. A 2019 study by Osborne and Miller indicated that Google Scholar profiles are positively associated with both increased exposure (downloads) on platforms like SSRN as well as increased citation counts. Yet, at the time of the study, only 17% of law faculty had Google Scholar profiles. Caroline L. Osborne & Stephanie Miller, The Scholarly Impact Matrix: An Empirical Study of How Multiple Metrics Create an Informed Story of a Scholar's Work, WVU College of Law Research Paper No. 2020-006, at 13-18 (2020).
Go to https://scholar.google.com/ and click on "My profile" (if you don’t already have a Google account, you will need to create one).
At minimum, enter your name, affiliation, and email. Click Next. You will receive a request to verify your email.
Add articles. At the top of the page, you should see two tabs: Groups and Articles. If you see your name listed under Groups, you can click on the link for ARTICLES to the right of your name. You can then use the checkboxes to select individual articles or you can use "Select all" to check every article. Otherwise, click on the Articles tab and use the checkboxes to select individual articles. When finished, click the blue arrow at the top of the screen. One nice thing about Google is that all of this information can be easily edited after you're done.
Now, adjust your settings. Under Article updates, I recommend "Email me updates for review." That way, you have control over what is being posted to your profile. Under Profile visibility, choose public. Under Follow by email, you can choose to receive updates about new articles related to your research or new citations to your articles. Click Done.
Google Scholar is easy to use, but doesn't always find every article and sometimes includes duplicates or false positives. To manually add an article, click the + icon in the gray bar above your publications list and select "Add article manually." Fill out as many of the fields as possible and click the blue checkmark. To delete an article, use the checkbox next to the article and click Delete in the gray bar above your publications list. To merge articles, use the checkboxes next to both articles, click Merge in the gray bar above your publications list, then click "Select" next to the preferred citation.