We are probably a few who, during searches of papers from specific researchers in Web of Science or Google Scholar, have experienced the frustration of getting 100s of papers listed from different subjects and clearly different authors. This problem of course arises when we search for scientists with common last names. Often the only solution is to either browse through all the papers or alternatively go in search of the scientist’s own homepage to view his publication list there.
However, Thompson Scientific is now trying to do something about this problem by launching a new researcher database called ResearcherID , where each scientist is given a unique identification number. The idea is then that visitors to the database can search for papers by that scientist only.
There are, however, a few problems with their idea and the database. Firstly, the functionality of the database is highly dependent on getting a very large proportion of scientists to sign up, add their publications and continuously update their profile. Secondly, scientists can only add publications if their institution is subscribing to ISI Web of Science. Thompson Scientific has possibly made a serious mistake by only making ResearcherID compatible with their own Web of Science as fewer and fewer institutions subscribe to that.