Making your research findable

Strategies for findable research

When it comes to research outputs, high-quality metadata helps others to reuse the material and build upon your work. Metadata refers to the information that describes books, articles, and other scholarly materials in databases and systems. It includes key details such as the title, author names and affiliations, publication date, and subject keywords. 

Strategies to improve the metadata associated with your work include:

1. Provide your unique ORCID identifier to publishers. By including it alongside your name, your work can be clearly identified, increasing its visibility. 
2. When supplying keywords to publishers, include a wide range of relevant terms. Consider both general and specialised vocabulary, as well as variations of language and phrasing. This approach will broaden the scope of search results and attract a larger audience.
3. Describe datasets in a comprehensive manner to facilitate their reuse. Ensure that all necessary information is included to help others understand and work with your data.

Researcher profiles and persistent identifiers

A well-maintained online researcher profile makes it easier for your work to be found and attributed correctly. There are several different researcher profiles that can be associated with your work. You can create a Google Scholar profile, and the citation databases Scopus and Web of Science automatically identify authors and create a list of their articles as they are published. Learn more about researcher profiles here  

Track your outputs with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

A DOI is a unique identifier that provides a persistent link to identify objects such as publications or datasets. Publishers assign DOIs to articles or books upon electronic publication, making them readily accessible. The DOI ensures that the object can be consistently identified, even if its location on the internet changes over time. Learn more about DOIs here.

Sharing your work – copyright considerations 

Before sharing your published content, you must ascertain its copyright status. Publishing agreements may prohibit you from distributing copies of your article except in specific locations and formats specified by the publisher. It is best to consider these implications prior to deciding where to publish and to ensure compliance with any conditions when sharing your work online. 

Open access, licensing and repositories

There are several ways to make your work open access: 

• Archiving your publications in your institution's repository ensures free and unrestricted access.
• Explore publishing in reputable open access journals that provide immediate and unrestricted access to your research. 
• Leverage open access platforms, such as preprint servers or disciplinary repositories, to share your findings with the broader academic community. 

Library staff are available to help you understand open access policies, initiatives, and funding mandates.

Licensing your work with an open access license, such as CC BY-NC, lets others reuse your research. Check before signing a publishing agreement whether the license remains with you or gets transferred to the publisher. The eScholarship repository can help with questions around licensing.