1. Last name only [only if the last name is fully unique].

2. Full given name + Family name; sort by rank and move to last consecutive accurate result. From there onwards, accurate results will be either non-existent or infrequent, typically occurring in batches.

3. Do not: search for Initial + Family Name as CR implements an OR search (i.e J Bloggs will result in all academics with initial J + all academics with last name Bloggs).

4. Do not: use AND or OR searches they are not supported.

1. Might report too many homonyms. A search can still work if you can identify a comprehensive, but distinctive enough, set of words in articles titles (in Title words) or in title and abstract (in Keywords).

2a. Might still miss some publications, esp. in fields where publishing with initials only is common.

2b. Relevant publications without citations will often be ranked low, so are likely to be missed.

2c. Works best for academics with mostly first-authored publications and authors with few co-authors (leading to high “rank” score).

Note: Reliably identifying authors is very difficult in CR, so it is best to only try this for authors you are very familiar with.

1. Single initial + Family name.

2. Multiple initials + Family name.

3. Full given name + Family name.

4. Two author names separated by AND will report co-authored papers.

1. Might report too many homonyms, see this blogpost on Author Disambiguation for very comprehensive tips to address this.

2. Might miss (some) publications if author has also published with one initial.

3. Might miss (some) publications, esp. in fields where publishing with initials only is common.

• The GSP search is very "forgiving"; most searches will provide some kind result.
• Try searching with the most unique element(s) of an academic’s name. Narrow down by including affiliation (if known) if you get too many results.

• Only works if academic in question has created a profile.
• No result if you search by full given name and academic has only used initial in their profile. Easily fixed by using a less restrictive search.

1. Full given name + Family name usually, though not always, gives a good result.

2. Single initial + Family name

3. Two author names separated by AND will report co-authored papers.

1. This type of search performs better in MA than in all other databases, but might still miss some publications, esp. in fields where publishing with initials only is common.

2. Might report too many homonyms, but can be narrowed down by year and/or including words in article title in Title words or words in the abstract in Keywords

1. Look up an author’s ORCID ID on the ORCID website and enter it in the Author ID or ORCID field.

2. Look up an author’s Open Alex ID on the Open Alex website and enter it in the Author ID or ORCID field.

1. This search strategy only works if the author you are searching for has created an ORCID profile and has kept it up to date.

2. This search strategy relies on the accuracy of OA author profiles. This seems good after a August 2023 update, but needs further verification.

1. Family name + one or more initials or given name [please note: PubMed requires family name first].

2. Two author names separated by AND will report co-authored papers.

3. Two author names separated by OR will report papers authored by either author (or name variants of one author).

1. Scopus ID [in the author field]. See Scopus Author IDs

2. Single initial + Family name.

3. Do not: search for Full given name + Family name as this will only give a sub-set of an academic’s publications.

4. Two author names separated by AND will report co-authored papers.

5. Do not use an OR search, it is not supported

1. Will only provide complete and accurate results if your Scopus profile is complete and accurate. This is less likely for common names. However, you can submit change requests to Scopus.

2a. Might report too many homonyms, but can be narrowed down by year and by including non-relevant article title words in the Title words or Keywords field preceded by NOT, separated by OR; e.g. medical terms for a Social Sciences scholar. [Note: Scopus does not accept NOT as the first word.] If uncertain if an article belongs to the author you are searching for, right-click and select Open article in browser to get more detail.

2b. Can also be narrowed down by including relevant title words in Title words or Keywords fields separate title words by OR to change this field into "any of the words"

2c. Can also be narrowed down by university affiliation(s) if known and the author you are searching for has not worked at too many different institutions.

Note: Although you can search for all authors, the free Scopus search only returns the first author in the results.

1. Family name + Single Initial [please note: WoS requires family name first!].

2. Family name + Full given name (for publications after 2007 only).

3. Two author names separated by AND will report co-authored papers.

1. Might report too many homonyms, but can be narrowed down by year and/or including words in article title in Title words, separated by OR. [Can use wildcards, e.g. global* for global, globally, globalize, globalise, globalization, globalisation, globalizing, globalising]

2. Might still miss some publications, esp. in fields where publishing with initials only is common.