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I am an early stage researcher (just progressed into my first postdoc) and I have made some effort to keep my online presence (e.g. Google Scholar) correct and up to date. I have recently noticed that an author with a highly similar name (identical first and last name) has my publications listed in his google scholar page as well as his own.

I have tried contacting the author directly as I have heard that someone that was interested in my work actually sent an e-mail to the other authors. However, the other author has not responded.

Should I contact google directly or am I overthinking this whole situation and should I just ignore it?

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    Why would you contact the author? I suggest contacting google scholar
    – Krebto
    Mar 27, 2017 at 11:57
  • I ran into this with ResearchGate. They asked me if someone was my coauthor, and based on affiliation and other info I said I thought not. Nevertheless, that person has slipped into my list of coauthors and I get alerts about him. Can't figure out how to disambiguate, but it's not me in this case, so I won't jump through hoops. Merely an annoyance. Mar 27, 2017 at 12:34
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    @Krebto The author is able to 'curate' his publication list on Google Scholar rather easily by just selecting the relevant publiction and ticking the 'not mine' button.
    – Bas Jansen
    Mar 27, 2017 at 13:51

2 Answers 2

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I suggest you create an ORCID, as it is meant exactly to solve homonymy.

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  • Not all venues support that yet, but yes, great idea Mar 27, 2017 at 12:30
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How strange of a problem! I never run into people with the same last name as mine, so I haven't run into this before.

First, if Google Scholar is no help with removing the citation from the other author's list, does this mean that you cannot link the paper to your own list? Link it to your own page and when others cannot get a hold of that author for questions about your paper, they may try you.

Second, do you have a middle name? You may distinguish yourself between you and the other author by consistently using a middle initial.

Third, if you have your contact information on the articles in question, I would trust that a good scholar would look up the Corresponding Author information on the article itself.

Google scholar is just google scholar. This must be frustrating for you, but remember that when you apply for academic jobs or tenure, this doppleganger will not be able to take credit for your work. It is yours and will reflect your effort.

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  • I have a middle name which helps a bit at least, but many papers just put the first letter of a middle name, which means that an interested reader would have to 'guess' the middle name.
    – Bas Jansen
    Mar 28, 2017 at 9:13
  • Yes, that is true, but my point was that a middle initial sets you apart from the other person. You could start publishing with your full middle name written out and this may also reduce the person's likelihood of linking your work to his page in the future. Mar 30, 2017 at 17:27

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