The hidden problem in research information
Author disambiguation sits behind almost every system that organizes research around people. It determines which publications appear on a researcher’s profile and influences institutional reporting, research evaluation, collaboration analysis and research integrity workflows.
When it goes wrong, the errors are not always obvious. One profile may combine the work of several people, while another researcher’s work may be divided across multiple identities. These inaccuracies can then move between systems, leaving institutions to determine which author-publication links can be trusted.
Join Simon Porter, VP Research Futures at Digital Science, for an evidence-led examination of author identity data and the hidden work required to make it usable. Drawing on curated institutional records from 30 universities, Simon will compare the performance of Dimensions and OpenAlex, explore patterns of merged and fragmented author profiles and explain how these errors create an “integration cost” for institutions.
The session will also connect the research findings to the upcoming author disambiguation update in Dimensions. Attendees will see how the methodology and evidence behind the study are informing improvements to researcher profiles, with implications for data and workflows across Dimensions, Altmetric and Symplectic Elements.
More broadly, the webinar will consider how institutions should evaluate scholarly data sources. Coverage and accessibility matter, but so do the accuracy of the connections within the data and the effort required to verify them before they can support institutional decisions.
What you’ll learn
- Why author disambiguation is foundational to reliable research information
- How merged and fragmented profiles affect institutional systems and analysis
- What a comparison with curated university records reveals about author data in Dimensions and OpenAlex
- How to recognize and assess the integration cost of a scholarly data source
Join us to explore what it takes to trust the author data behind your research systems.
Speakers
Simon Porter
VP Research Futures | Digital Science
