York University Libraries provide a broad range of expertise and services to support research and publishing.
Scholarly Communications
Scholarly communications traditionally includes the processes and modes through which scholars disseminate research findings. In response to the increasing complexity of publishing and funding landscapes, scholarly communications now also includes issues related to copyright, open access, author rights, data management, and research metrics, among others.
Author Profiles and Identifiers (ORCID, Scopus ID, Web of Science ResearcherID)
Author profiles, also known as researcher profiles, are an essential component of your academic career to build and enhance your online presence and increase engagement. An author profile is an accessible online profile of your professional and academic activities, outputs, and achievements. It allows information about your academic and professional career, and your research to be correctly attributed to you, visible, easy to find, and accessible.
There are several types of author profiles that can be created and managed. Of note, some profiles are automatically created once you have an article that is indexed, notably the Scopus database. An author profile contains a unique author or researcher identifier that is assigned to you and follows you over the course of your academic and professional career. Much like a Social Security Number (SIN), unique author identifiers like ORCID, Scopus ID, and Web of Science ResearcherID allow researchers to distinguish themselves, even if names, employment, and affiliations change. It is important to check and correct your author profiles, because your publications may be fragmented with multiple IDs that have been created by different profiling platforms. Enhance your visibility by creating and monitoring author profiles over time. Learn how to correct your author details, add your institutional affiliation, merge author profiles, and ensure your publications are correctly attributed to you:
- Create and update your ORCID profile
- Check and update your Scopus author profile
- Create and update your Web of Science author profile
Need help with your author profile? Contact us at metrics@yorku.ca.
Where to publish? How does one make publications accessible?
Making one's publications accessible is a function of a number of factors, including addressing barriers to access (open access publishing), considering copyright, leveraging technological infrastructure to maximize visibility, and publishing in venues that are recognized and visible to one's target readership. The section below addresses these areas and provides strategies for navigating the landscape.
- Open Access Publishing: Frequently Asked Questions
- York University Senate Policy on Open Access: Frequently Asked Questions
- Choosing an appropriate journal for publishing research (includes open access options and information on predatory publishers)
- Understanding green and gold open access publishing (includes how to meet Tri-Council open access requirements)
- Copyright information for authors (copyright, author addenda, takedown notices)
- Maximize indexing, visibility and exposure of your research using YorkSpace
Need help with making your research open access? Contact us at opendeposit@yorku.ca.
What is research data management? How do I make research data accessible?
The Tri-Council signalled its interest in research data management with its Statement of Principles on Digital Data Management in 2016. While grant applicants are being asked to submit research data management plans, it is prudent that researchers consider and apply data management principles throughout the research lifecycle. Not doing so may have impacts in the areas of ethics, data security, and sharing of research results. Research data management plans can be created by using the DMP Assistant. This tool is an instructive resource that helps researchers think through how to manage their data at all stages of the research lifecycle.
- Research Data Management: Frequently Asked Questions
- Creating a research data management plan (managing your data before, during, and after publication)
- Depositing your data (making research data accessible)
- An introduction to open data
- Assigning a license to your data (clarifying terms of use)
Need research data management support? Contact us at yul_rdm@yorku.ca.
What are research metrics? How can I assess research impact?
The measurement and assessment of research outputs can be used to better understand the research landscape and various forms of impact, including academic, societal, and economic impact. Using resources available through York University Libraries and beyond, it is possible to gain a sense of the impact of scholarship, perform impact analysis, find collaborators, and track research trends. When used responsibly and in context, research metrics can be used as evidence of impact for grant, job, promotion and award applications. This guide provides an overview of research impact, including standard bibliometric approaches, new alternative metrics, and some common tools for accessing both. It also provides information about the potential limitations and responsible use of these approaches for measuring research impact.
- Guide to Research Metrics
- Alternative metrics or altmetrics (social and online engagement)
Have questions about research metrics? Contact us at metrics@yorku.ca.
Supports available on campus and at the Libraries
A campus-wide Open Access Open Data steering committee has been formed to support community members with Tri-council policy compliance and to foster campus dialogue around emerging opportunities afforded by developing models in scholarly communications. York University Libraries host an open-access repository, YorkSpace, which is open to the university community as a standards-based institutional platform for the dissemination of research. The York Digital Journals program offers hosting of Open Journal Systems publishing software for the publishing of academic journals.