Scholarly Identity

"If you were thinking about hiring a new faculty member in your department, how would you learn more about her?" That is the question I’ve found most helpful whenever I begin one of the workshops I lead on my campus to help academics create and manage their digital identities. Faculty members, graduate students, and others typically respond by saying they would read the candidate’s work and talk with others in the field, but eventually someone will say, 'Google her'. Indeed, it’s often the first thing someone says. I then ask attendees what someone might learn if he or she were to Google them. Would they be happy with what a search-committee member, journalist, or conference organizer looking for a keynote speaker learned about their work? Would it tell the whole story?"

Brian Croxall, How to Overcome What Scares Us about Our Online Identities. The Chronicle of Higher Education. April 21, 2014.

You want your work visible and you want it used, so more sharing should always be better, right?

Not necessarily. Read this cautionary article in Forbes about Academia.edu

Dear Scholars, Delete Your Account At Academia.Edu

Academia.edu is not educationally affiliated but a for-profit company seeking to monetize your data. It provides no preservation of your articles, engages in questionable practices to boost visibility and spams scholars with repeated and annoying messages.

Read more on our Sharing Work page.