Author IDs provide unique identification for researchers, ensuring accurate attribution of publications and eliminating confusion with similar names. They also enable visibility of one’s complete scholarly output and facilitate citation tracking.
Recommended Systems

• ORCID – Persistent digital identifier; interoperates with ResearcherID & Scopus.
• ResearcherID (Clarivate) – Linked to Web of Science; synchronizes with ORCID.
• Scopus Author ID – Automatically generated for Scopus-indexed authors.
• Google Scholar Citations – Tracks citations and h-index.
• SciENcv – CV system developed by NIH and other U.S. agencies.

Author Profile Services

• Academia.edu – Upload and track readership of publications.
• ResearchGate – Professional networking, collaboration, and citation tracking.

Whenever possible, all of them. The systems mentioned above are not mutually exclusive and frequently connect with each other (e.g., ORCID connects to Researcher ID & Scopus Author ID).

In general, you have to add publications and update your information regularly. The one exception is Google Scholar, whose new work can be added automatically. Most others, however, do support importing from major databases:

• ORCID: Web of Science (through ResearcherID), CrossRef, Airiti (Chinese papers), BibTeX
• ResearcherID: Web of Science, EndNote, RIS, ORCID
• Scopus Author ID: EndNote, RIS, ORCID
• Google Scholar Citations: Google Scholar

Yes.

• ResearcherID (through Web of Science) and Google Scholar Citations offer citation counts straight away.
• ORCID doesn’t provide citation counts itself, but third-party software can follow metrics based on your ORCID list of publications.

• ORCID: An open community system offering a persistent digital identifier. ORCID interoperates with ResearcherID and Scopus.
• ResearcherID (Clarivate): Associating with Web of Science, provides persistent author identification and can be synchronized with ORCID.
• SciENcv: Created by NIH and other U.S. federal agencies for researcher CVs; a My NCBI, eRA, or NIH account is needed.
• Google Scholar Citations: Enabling the creation of profiles, tracking citations, and h-indexing in Google Scholar.
• Scopus Author ID: Automatically generated for authors of publications covered by Scopus; provides metrics such as h-index, number of citations, and co-author networks. Can be attached to ORCID.

• Academia.edu: Allows scholars to deposit publications and monitor simple measures such as views and downloads.
• ResearchGate: A social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. It is one of the largest academic social network in terms of active users.