Visibility of publications, research and researchers
It is important for researchers that their scholarly publications gain visibility. In addition to OA publishing, researchers can enhance the visibility and accessibility of their publications through forums that are used extensively. Researcher visibility involves managing information about researchers and their work in order to raise researchers’ and organisations’ profiles and to promote the visibility of their research.
ORCID iD
Researchers’ personal methods to improve the findability and visibility of their publications include, for example, using ORCID identifier (strongly recommended), publishing open access via OA and hybrid journals or by self-archiving, and participating in social networking services of their own field.
UEF Services
UEF has a service called UEF Connect for researchers and research groups to offer an opportunity to showcase their expertise and research activities. A page has been reserved for all university researchers and other experts (at the moment with staff status) where they can update their information. The address can then be linked to funding applications and used for other similar purposes. It also offers an arena for research groups to introduce themselves. Read more about UEF Connect. If possible, log in with your personal UEF credentials to complete your information. Instructions(also in Finnish).
UEF CRIS is the research information system of UEF. It contains topical information on UEF experts’ publications, research activities and international visits. Log in with your personal UEF credentials to complete your UEF CRIS profile. Add you ORCID iD and research activities. Check your publications. You can also add your photo, and links to your profiles in networking services like LinkedIn and ResearchGate. It is possible to print out your CV from UEF CRIS. Read more about UEF CRIS at UEF Intranet.
Networking
Academic social networks support activities across the research cycle, from getting job suggestions, sharing and reading full-text papers to following use of your research output within the system (i.e. altmetrics).
Traditional metrics has focused on the impact of research within academia. However, research impact is much more than that. When measuring societal impact, the focus is on the contribution research makes to society. So, research impact can be defined as the contribution that research makes to the society, economy, environment or culture. New metrics can include altmetrics, but also e.g. data citation and patent metrics. Read through What types of impact are there? to better understand what kinds of research impact exist.
Peer-reviewed journals and conferences have traditionally been the focus of researchers’ efforts to make their research visible. However, as social media has become more prevalent, the way academics disseminate their research is changing. Academics are increasingly using social media and are expected to have a professional online presence.
In the last decade there has been an emergence of Academic Social Networking Sites (ASNSs). Each site offers its own combination of tools and capabilities to support research activities, communication, collaboration, and networking. However, due to their variety, it might be challenging for academics to evaluate and use them. Also maintaining multiple profiles might be time-consuming. Thus, during this course, we hope you can find a social network site / sites suitable for your needs.
Academic social networking and visibility services
There are several social networking and visibility platforms for academics. Acquaint yourself with at least one of these.
Academia.edu is a social networking platform for academics to communicate and share research papers. The Academia.edu community was the first social media service specifically for researchers, and it has gathered more than 291 million users (2025) from around the world. The service allows its users to create a profile, upload works, select areas of interests and browse the networks of people with similar interests. Academia.edu can also be used for searching for job opportunities. In the Analytics section you can see the impact of your research.
There is also a premium version available for a charge. This allows you to learn more about your readers and get more out of your analytics, and to search grant and fellowship opportunities.
Sign up and create your profile
You can create your personal profile by signing up to the service with your own e-mail or using a Google or a Facebook account. Mobile app is available.
Share your publications and remember to check copyright
In Academia.edu, you can share your publications and access publications by others. You can also ask about and discuss academic subjects or ask for comments for your manuscript. Academia.edu allows you to follow your publications’ impact along with your academic field and its researchers. The articles uploaded into the service are well visible in Google searches.
Keep copyrights and embargo dates in mind before uploading your publications to Academia.edu. Verify from your publisher, funder or your research organisation that you have the right to share research material. If the publisher has not defined a separate policy regarding data sharing within researcher networking services, you can check publishers’ self-archiving policies in the Sherpa Romeo service. Notice that uploading manuscripts/articles to these kind of networking services is not considered as self-archiving.
LinkedIn is a free, general and global academic, business and employment-oriented social networking service which operates via website and mobile app.
It was launched in 2003, and there are over 1.1 billion registered members (2025). In addition to academic researchers, the members include entrepreneurs, employers and students from many academic fields, along with other types of experts.
There is a premium version available (27.25 EUR / month in 2024). This enables you e.g. to contact anyone on LinkedIn, even if you are not connected, take LinkedIn learning courses and advance your professional life.
Create your profile
Get started on LinkedIn and create your own user profile. You can also sign in with your Google account. Present your education, competences, work experience and your personal interests in different academic fields. Your own professional public profile increases your coverage on the Web and provides you versatile support in networking.
What can you do on LinkedIn?
Manage your professional identity.
Build and engage with your professional network.
LinkedIn is a meeting ground for employees and employers. Search for jobs or find new employees.
ResearchGate is a free, social networking site for researchers and other experts to share publications and data, ask and answer questions, share updates about research projects, and find jobs and collaborators.
It was launched in 2008, and there are around 25 million registered members (2025). The service makes it easy for you to contact researchers of your own academic field. ResearchGate has especially been favoured within life sciences.
Get started on ResearchGate and create your own user profile. Present your education, competences, work experience and your personal interests in different academic fields. Your own professional public profile increases your coverage on the Web and provides you versatile support in networking. Mobile app is also available.
Share your publications (responsively), and access millions more
ResearchGate allows you to share your publications (see section Responsible sharing in scholarly networks), access other users’ written works and request articles from other researchers.
The ResearchGate’s search engine extends its reach to its own systems, and also international databases (among others, PubMed, CiteSeer, arXiv and the NASA HQ Library). You can also get recommendations about groups and literature that might interest you, along with other users interested in the same subjects.
Get stats and find out who’s been reading and citing your work – ask questions, get answers
In addition, ResearchGate provides you with information about your articles that are viewed, downloaded and cited. Feel free to create projects and participate the discussions in the forums – you can ask about and comment on academic subjects and issues.
Find the right job using research-focused job board
The website also has its own listings of open academic jobs.
Remember copyright and embargo
Keep copyrights and embargo dates in mind before uploading your publications into ResearchGate. Verify from your publisher, funder or your research organisation that you have the right to share research material. Many publishers have restrictions about sharing articles on commercial social networks. Always make sure that you know which version (published, final draft (i.e. accepted version), or preprint (i.e. submitted version)) can be shared and if commercial social networks can be used. Sherpa Romeo, for instance, can be used to check the terms. Notice that uploading manuscripts/articles to these kind of networking services is not considered as self-archiving.
Also, acknowledge copyrights with downloading other researchers’ publications from ResearchGate for your personal use. The user is always responsible for using downloaded material. When needed, find out rights to use from the original source of information or ask for permission to use from the author or the owner of the publication.
Web of Science Researcher Profiles (formely Publons). You can track your publications, citation metrics, peer reviews, and journal editing work. Publications are instantly imported from Web of Science and ORCID. Citation metrics are also automatically imported from the Web of Science Core Collection.
Societal Impact Toolkit – to help you understand how other researchers view societal impact and how they’ve been successful in creating it. Springer Nature.
