Profile FAQs

Where do you get the profile information?

Profiles are created for faculty members listed on your university’s academic department websites.  If department websites are unavailable, or if no faculty are listed on a department’s website, faculty profiles will be created based on the data available at hierarchically higher or lower level organizations such as schools or programs.  From these selected webpages, we harvest information on faculty members’ names, email addresses, webpages (homepages, pages that list publications, and CV pages), degree information, research interests, and current academic departmental affiliations (includes role/position).  

How is relevance determined for profile search results?

Relevance is determined by matching the keyword(s) in a query against the faculty member’s expertise, linked publication titles, linked publication abstracts, and webpages. Each of these is assigned a value and total scores are given to a profile and ordered against total scores from other matching profiles. Essentially, we evaluate where the matching keyword occurs in addition to taking into consideration how often it occurs in a profile. You can list the results in alpha order based on the scholars' last names by clicking on the Name sorting button just above the results list. 

How are communities assigned to profiles?

The list of communities is a high-level hierarchy of disciplines represented at academic institutions.  It breaks down into over 200 communities.  Profiles are assigned communities based on the person’s affiliation(s).  It is possible for a faculty member to have multiple community assignments based on the nature of their affiliations.

• Article last edited: 01-Apr-2014
• Old Article Number: 9974