Affiliation search

How to perform author searches with Publish or Perish

For important background information, see:

How to perform an Affiliation search

To perform a basic affiliation search:

  1. Enter the organization's name in the Affiliations field;
  2. Click Search or press the Enter key.

The program will now contact the data source in question to obtain the citations, process the list, and calculate the Citation metrics, which are then displayed in the Results list. The full list of results is also available for inspection or modifications and can be exported in a variety of formats.

Affiliation search syntax across databases

Every data source has its own unique syntax that – oftentimes – is not fully documented. Below you will find the most important tips and problems, but to get the best out of the different data sources you need to be prepared to experiment with different search strategies. If you find that some things are not working as you expect, please share your findings by sending me an email, so that, collectively, we can improve these instructions.

Please note: The search syntax below refers to what works best when you search the data source through Publish or Perish. This is not always identical to the most effective search syntax in the web interfaces of the respective databases as these might be structured differently.

Data source Most common problems
Crossref
  • At present we can not recommend using this search field.
  • Seems to have affiliation information for only a (small) subset of publishers. Springer, Elsevier and Emerald appear to be among the publishers not covered. 
  • As the affiliation is linked to papers, not individuals, a combined author / affiliation search will report results even if it is one of the author’s co-authors that has the requested affiliation.
  • Implements OR searches only. Hence Middlesex University will also match any other university with University in its name. We recommend that you search for the most unique part of the university's name only.
Google Scholar (GS)
  • Doesn’t have an affiliation search as such.
  • Can include affiliation in the keyword field using quotes e.g. "Middlesex University", but (like any GS search) this will be matched anywhere in the document, not just as affiliation of an author. Hence there is no one-to-one link between author and affiliation.
  • Affiliation can be used in a limited way to disambiguate authors, see Author disambiguation: Use affiliation for details.
Google Scholar Profile (GSP)
  • Doesn’t have an affiliation search as such.
  • However, by typing an affiliation name in the search field you will get a list of academic profiles from that university, ordered by number of citations.
  • This search can take a long time for universities with many academic profiles. So you might want to simply cancel the search after e.g. 100 profiles.
Microsoft Academic (MA)
  • Assigns university affiliation to individual author profiles, not to papers.
  • Seems to have a reasonable coverage of affiliations. Early trials suggest at least 60% of the papers have affiliation coverage.
  • Affiliation search might be useful for high-level comparisons such as Running the REF on a rainy Sunday afternoon, but is not recommended in combination with author names or if absolute accuracy is required.
OpenAlex
  • Does not support regular affiliation searches by name, but can search by using Affiliation ID, which can be found on the OpenAlex website.
  • Provides reasonably good results, but some publications have missing affiliations, and some have the wrong affiliation. As their data base is under active development this may well be resolved in the near future.
PubMed
  • Matches partial affiliation, e.g. Middlesex University matches West Middlesex University Hospital.
  • Assigns university affiliation to individual papers, i.e. reports the affiliation of the author(s) at the time the paper was published.
  • The affiliation is linked to individuals. Hence a combined author / affiliation search can be conducted with more accuracy than other sources.
  • Accurately and comprehensively reports affiliations of papers. This does not preclude occasional errors, but affiliation search can generally be trusted.
Scopus
  • Assigns university affiliation to individual papers, i.e. reports the affiliation of the author(s) at the time the paper was published.
  • As the affiliation is linked to papers, not individuals, a combined author / affiliation search will report results even if it is one of the author’s co-authors that has the requested affiliation.
  • Accurately and comprehensively reports affiliations of papers. This does not preclude occasional errors, but affiliation search can generally be trusted.
Web of Science
  • Assigns university affiliation to individual papers, i.e. reports the affiliation of the author(s) at the time the paper was published.
  • As the affiliation is linked to papers, not individuals, a combined author / affiliation search will report results even if it is one of the author’s co-authors that has the requested affiliation.
  • Accurately and comprehensively reports affiliations of papers. This does not preclude occasional errors, but affiliation search can generally be trusted