This exercise was really eye-opening and very relevant to me. I followed Helen’s instructions and went ahead to set up my Google Scholar profile. It was not at all difficult. Very quickly, I could see my own profile and could track others’ citations of my previous work. This is where I discovered that while my one of my papers was cited this year, the author wrongly cited my name! The problem is in my home country, my last name (surname) is place in FRONT of my first name. That’s just the way it has been for many of us who have chinese tri-syllabic names. It is made complicated when each syllable can equally and easily pass off as a last name! This made me think very hard of the way in which I must be aware of how I present my name on the international arena and how that can still be reconciled with how my name is arranged and perceived in my home country. I realised that although I am still the same person, it does take some getting used to to have the consecutive arrangement of my name re-aligned.
So I was a little bit relieved to see that ResearcherID scheme is made available to sort out such mix-ups and confusions. I’ve requested for an ID and will certainly explore this to a greater depth. Thanks, Helen!
I have not made my page public as yet but will be thinking hard about doing so. Also, I did find that one of the terms I used to denote my research interest appeared not to have been used by anyone else. I know however, that even in mainstream literature, that term is relatively less used. So, I’m going to leave it at that and perhaps be the first person to place that term on that platform. Generally, I found the profile and citation maps to be quite useful as a quick glance into my work.
I do agree that citation and scholarly activity are differently appreciated, conceived and shaped within the Humanities/Social Science as opposed to the (hard) Sciences. Unfortunately, scholars in Humanities/Social Sciences are often subjected to playing the game following someone else’s rules. Indeed, scholars in Humanities/Social Sciences do not get cited as much and as widely as Science scholars. I think I have to continue to be aware of such differences and still work within the boundaries of the process. I am aware that scholars do cite themselves and favourable others (colleagues who make it a point to cite each other) which results in an apparent increase in number of citations. I would go along with that only If the citations are genuinely argued for in the article.
I am currently researching and examining the reading experience of readers in the 21st century. This exercise has driven home the point about how radically different the reading experience can be today and how far the extent of the technological revolution is in re-shaping the way we read. I think about whose reading choice it really is when it comes down to what is presented in front of us on our screens . If large corporations like Google, Thompson Reuters and Web of Science are steering the general direction of web publications and academic institutions are roped in to be pawns within the web, perhaps scholars must stay vigilant about how they experience reading and in where they position the invisible hand behind the articles they think they have ‘freely’ chosen to read. In sum, I want to be aware that while I will shape my profile and if I choose, place it out there for the internet public, I am still very much a part of a new culture of readers with a new thinking behind their reading experience.
ResearchReading 