Finding a researcher's bibliography

[Alfred001]

Pardon the noob question but how would one go about finding everything a researcher has published (or every paper he has published, if it's not possible to search for books and other publications), presuming you had to do it through databases, rather than going to wiki or his personal website.

Edited September 6, 2018 by Alfred001

[CharonY]

Usually you start with a search in the appropriate database. If the name is common you then refine the search via affiliation/topic as appropriate. Nowadays quite a few also use Orchid identifiers, which makes things easier. 

[Alfred001]

16 hours ago, CharonY said:

Usually you start with a search in the appropriate database. If the name is common you then refine the search via affiliation/topic as appropriate. Nowadays quite a few also use Orchid identifiers, which makes things easier. 

But that would give me only the stuff they've published in that database, no? If they've also published stuff in journals not included in that database I wouldn't get those.

[Klaynos]

2 hours ago, Alfred001 said:

But that would give me only the stuff they've published in that database, no? If they've also published stuff in journals not included in that database I wouldn't get those.

That will always be the case. You will not catch fish outside of where you cast your net. You could try searching all of the larger databases, Google scholar, web of science, Google books etc... But there is still the chance of missing things. 

The easiest way is probably by asking the researcher. Although I've been known to forget my own publications. Especially the less formal ones (e.g. conference proceedings). 

[quiet]

An example. Suppose someone has told me something about an author surnamed Rañada, who published articles regarding electromagnetic knots. They are very imprecise data, because the full name of the author is Antonio Fernández Rañada and the phrase electromagnetic knots does not appear in the title. Likewise, if in the internet search engine you put the following,

Rañada. "Electromagnetic knots"

the search engine finds the author's publications.

[Paul2reach]

Nowadays more and more scientist create profiles at various databases/search engines. Think about:

Google Scholar profile (once active and public you simple click on the underlined name and you get a complete list of publications, at least those present in Google Scholar).

ORCID ID is a non-proprietary alphanumeric code that uniquely identify scientific contributions to the appropriate author (nowadays more and a prerequisite when submitting a manuscript to a journal).

Researchgate profile. A large number of scientist upload there work here and make it accessible to either the members (by request) or public (this service is often used to present other than official papers as well such as conference posters, preprints, data, methods etc.).

I am afraid that this will only count for currently still active researchers. If you want to get a full overview of let’s say Albert Einstein than this is easy but a less famous person will require a lot of effort by searching the web, asking former co-workers, reading some of the work you can find and look for self-citations linking to work you didn’t find earlier and so on.

[CharonY]

On 9/7/2018 at 3:16 AM, Alfred001 said:

But that would give me only the stuff they've published in that database, no? If they've also published stuff in journals not included in that database I wouldn't get those.

Folks do not publish to a database, but to journals or books. Databases collect entries from those respective publishing options. There may be problems if they publish in somewhat more obscure or long discontinued journals, or if they have a very common name. In the latter case, it may help use additional info, such as research areas and affiliation. 

 

On 5/18/2019 at 5:06 AM, Paul2reach said:

owadays more and more scientist create profiles at various databases/search engines. Think about:

Google Scholar profile (once active and public you simple click on the underlined name and you get a complete list of publications, at least those present in Google Scholar).

ORCID ID is a non-proprietary alphanumeric code that uniquely identify scientific contributions to the appropriate author (nowadays more and a prerequisite when submitting a manuscript to a journal).

Researchgate profile. A large number of scientist upload there work here and make it accessible to either the members (by request) or public (this service is often used to present other than official papers as well such as conference posters, preprints, data, methods etc.).

I am afraid that this will only count for currently still active researchers. If you want to get a full overview of let’s say Albert Einstein than this is easy but a less famous person will require a lot of effort by searching the web, asking former co-workers, reading some of the work you can find and look for self-citations linking to work you didn’t find earlier and so on.

It has gained momentum as everyone is pressured to use one or several of these things (and they are more) as a means for self and institutional promotion. I think it comes more natural to the younger folks, others update less regularly (say, around grant seasons...).