Author disambiguation: Include quotes (" ")
Publish or Perish tutorial
If searching for your own name in Publish or Perish gives you a long list of publications that are not yours, there are two possible causes.
1. You did not include quotes
You did not include quotes (e.g. “a harzing”) around the name you searched for.
Why do I need to include quotes?
Google Scholar default search behaviour is the same as Google’s default search behaviour. This means that if you do not use quotes around the search terms it will match your author search terms anywhere in the author record.
- If you do an author search without quotes, Google Scholar matches the name and initials anywhere in the list of authors, so C Kulik would also match P Kulik, C Williamson.
- To match an author's initials only in combination with her or his own surname, use "quotes" around the author's name: "C Kulik" will not match P Kulik, C Williamson.
- However, “C Kulik” will match CT Kulik (the actual academic we are looking for), CM Kulik, NC Kulik or any other name that contains both C and Kulik. To resolve this problem, see Author disambiguation: Use multiple initials.
2. Your name is not unique
The combination of your given name and family name is not unique and there are other academics with the same name. There are many ways in which you can disambiguate your name from other academics with the same name. For more details, please see the links in the right-hand column and below.
| Use selective exclusion | Use full given name | Exclude co-authors |
| Use multiple initials | Use year restrictions | Use research field |
| Exclude homonyms | Use multiple names | Use affiliation |
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Copyright © 2022 Anne-Wil Harzing. All rights reserved. Page last modified on Thu 2 Jun 2022 10:37
Anne-Wil Harzing is Emerita Professor of International Management at Middlesex University, London. She is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business, a select group of distinguished AIB members who are recognized for their outstanding contributions to the scholarly development of the field of international business. In addition to her academic duties, she also maintains the Journal Quality List and is the driving force behind the popular Publish or Perish software program.
