It is important for every scientist to have a profile in scientometric databases, as it not only provides easy access to information resources, but also helps to popularise their research. However, sometimes publications are not displayed in the author's profile, which can negatively affect indicators such as the Hirsch index and limit the visibility of scientific papers internationally. How can this problem be solved? Today we will consider ways to solve this issue on the Google Scholar platform.
A random article was selected to write this article using a specific example
Advantages of using Google Scholar
One of the key benefits of the Google Scholar platform is its ability to quickly provide search results when an article is linked to an author's profile, allowing users to get reliable publication details. In addition, for journals indexed in Google Scholar, information on the number of times an article has been cited by other scholars is available, which serves as an important indicator of its scientific impact. This data is automatically taken into account when calculating the Hirsch index, which reflects the author's scientific productivity.
Publishing a scientific article is an important step in the dissemination of research results and the advancement of science. However, for a successful scientific career, it is important not only to publish articles, but also to monitor their impact in the scientific community. The number of citations of an article is one of the key indicators of its importance and contribution to the advancement of science. What if your article is published, you have a profile on the Google Scholar platform, the article is linked, but the number of citations is zero?
Search an article in Google Scholar
In the screenshot, you can see that the article's citation count is not yet displayed. However, it is important to understand what the search results page looks like, where this data is usually present. Such a page shows the total number of citations of an article. To do this, you need to select the “include citations” function on the left side of the panel, i.e. including citations. Here is an example of what the search results look like, which you can see when looking for a scientific article in the Google Scholar database.
The search process produced two different results for the same publication. The first result is an active link to the full text of a PDF article published in a scientific journal. The second result is a separate record of a citation of that article, but without an active link, indicating that the article has been cited 10 times by other scientists. Both results relate to the same publication, but the citations are not linked to the main record with a link to the article, causing the lack of citations to be incorrectly displayed on the platform.
How to merge articles and citations in a scholar's Google Scholar profile?
To do this, log in to your profile, enter the title of the article in the search box and click “Add articles” (as shown in the image below, highlighted in red).
In the search bar, enter the title of the article in the format of the quote given earlier: “Factual importance and self-significance of ideals in the cultural identification of European countries. Deleted Journal, 8 (4), 45-56” and find the desired entry. Then mark the article by ticking the appropriate checkbox. This action will link another version of the article to your profile and ensure that the citation count for the main publication is updated.
Next, you need to select both records of the article – the active link to the publication and the citation without an active link. Once this is done, click the “Merge” function as shown in the screenshot below. This action will merge the records into one, which will ensure proper linking of citations to the main record of the article and update the statistics of citations in your profile according to the real data.
Once you have selected both article records, you need to select the correct version of the article. Next, you click the button to merge. This will integrate the citations with other results into one article, which will ensure that the number of citations is displayed correctly and will improve your profile on the platform.
After following these steps, you will have one merged article where the citations to the publication will be active and the actual number of citations – 10 – will be displayed. This will ensure an accurate representation of the impact of your publication, allow you to track citations correctly and calculate the Hirsch index correctly.
We hope that this instruction was useful and helped you to correctly link the article to citations. Such errors and situations are not uncommon in various databases, especially Google Scholar, as it covers a huge number of records and is one of the largest. That is why it is important to regularly check your profile and the relevance of the data presented in it. This plays a significant role for your reputation and career development, helping to recognise your contribution to science and opening up new opportunities for collaboration with other researchers.
“Scientific Publications” offers a service to increase your citation and Hirsch index in Google Scholar. Our experts will conduct a comprehensive analysis of your profile, adjust all technical parameters, arrange references in accordance with the requirements of journals and perform other necessary actions. If you have any questions, fill out the form below and our manager will contact you for a free consultation. Together to new achievements!
