How to use Google Scholar as an Electrophysiologist
Are you struggling to keep up with the latest research? Do you want to track your own publications and citations more effectively? Google Scholar is a powerful tool that can help.
by Dr Peter Rupprecht, University of Zurich
Google Scholar is a freely accessible search engine that indexes scholarly articles, research papers, theses books, and conference papers across various disciplines. It helps researchers find academic sources, track citations, and stay updated on developments in their field. There are alternatives like PubMed (not a search engine but a database, commonly used in the medical field), Semantic Scholar (another database with richer annotations), and Citation Gecko (which helps discover networks of forward- and backward-citations, making it useful for identifying overlooked papers). I use all of these from time to time, along with newer tools based on large language models like Perplexity.ai or Litmaps, though their long-term value remains to be seen.
Here are my top recommendations for making the most of your Google Scholar profile as a researcher in neuroscience and other related disciplines.
Set up a public Google Scholar profile for better visibility
Once you have a Google account, it is straightforward to create a Google Scholar profile. As soon as you have your own publications associated with your profile, it also makes sense to make the profile public – this renders you searchable via Google Scholar as a person with an ID. This small step makes you more visible as an identifiable researcher, without having to go back to OrcID or other identifiers.
Curate your Google Scholar publications for accuracy
From time to time, you will be informed by Google Scholar about new publications that are associated with your name. You can choose to have these updates added automatically (useful if you're extremely busy) or manually review each one (recommended for accuracy). If you opt for manual review, be sure to check your updates regularly—especially if you don’t use your associated Gmail account for daily work.
Taking the time to curate your Google Scholar profile not only enhances its usefulness but also makes it more accessible to others. Here are a few steps to improve your profile:
- Remove incorrect publications that may have been mistakenly linked to your profile.
- Merge duplicate entries if multiple versions of the same study appear separately (as shown in the image below).
- Decide whether to include non-peer-reviewed work, such as your thesis, which Google Scholar sometimes indexes.
Image showing how to merge duplicate entries on Google Scholar if multiple versions of the same study appear separately
Additionally, I’ve noticed that Google Scholar can include blog posts if they are structured like scientific articles and feature a list of references. While it's interesting that these show up in search results, omitting them can help keep your profile more relevant for viewers.