How it works
Five steps, and only the third one waits on us.
Everything below is free. The only part that is not instant is verification, because a human being reads the document, which is the entire reason the badge means anything.
-
Create an account
Email, password, country, and the account type that fits you: practitioner, academic, student, organisation, or none of those. The type decides which verification badges you can later request, so it is worth picking honestly.
-
Fill in the parts people actually read
Your headline, what you specialise in, where you work, and one paragraph about what you do. Education and experience next. The profile completion meter weights these by how useful they are to somebody else, not by how easy they are to type.
-
Request verification
Upload the document for the tier you are eligible for. It goes to a queue where a person opens it, checks it against the issuing body, and records what they checked. You can delete the document afterwards and keep the badge.
-
Publish something
A research item, an article, or an answer to somebody else's question. Research gets a permanent citable ID, five citation formats, and honest read counts. If you cannot share the file, publish the record and link to the source.
-
Join the communities for your work
Subject communities are where questions get answered. Answering well is also how reputation is earned here, since followers count for nothing.
What you can do without an account
- Read every publicly published research item and download its files.
- Read public community discussion.
- Browse the member directory by field, country and city.
- Read the knowledge base.
- Use the research tools.
An account is needed to post, publish, message, or be listed. Not to read. Locking research behind a sign-up wall would defeat the point of hosting it.