How to use Google Scholar as an Electrophysiologist

Are you struggling to keep up with the latest research? Do you want to track your own publications and citations more effectively? Google Scholar is a powerful tool that can help.

Google Scholar is a freely accessible search engine that indexes scholarly articles, research papers, theses, books, and conference papers across various disciplines. It helps researchers find academic sources, track citations, and stay updated on developments in their field. There are alternatives like PubMed (not a search engine but a database, commonly used in the medical field), Semantic Scholar (another database with richer annotations), and Citation Gecko (which helps discover networks of forward- and backward-citations, making it useful for identifying overlooked papers). I use all of these from time to time, along with newer tools based on large language models like Perplexity.ai or Litmaps, though their long-term value remains to be seen.

Here are my top recommendations for making the most of your Google Scholar profile as a researcher in neuroscience and other related disciplines.

by Dr Peter Rupprecht, University of Zurich

Set up a public Google Scholar profile for better visibility

Once you have a Google account, it is straightforward to create a Google Scholar profile. As soon as you have your own publications associated with your profile, it also makes sense to make the profile public – this renders you searchable via Google Scholar as a person with an ID. This small step makes you more visible as an identifiable researcher, without having to go back to OrcID or other identifiers.

Curate your Google Scholar publications for accuracy

From time to time, you will be informed by Google Scholar about new publications that are associated with your name. You can choose to have these updates added automatically (useful if you're extremely busy) or manually review each one (recommended for accuracy). If you opt for manual review, be sure to check your updates regularly—especially if you don’t use your associated Gmail account for daily work.

Taking the time to curate your Google Scholar profile not only enhances its usefulness but also makes it more accessible to others. Here are a few steps to improve your profile:

Remove incorrect publications that may have been mistakenly linked to your profile.
Merge duplicate entries if multiple versions of the same study appear separately (as shown in the image below).
Decide whether to include non-peer-reviewed work, such as your theses, which Google Scholar sometimes indexes.

Image showing how to merge duplicate entries on Google Scholar if multiple versions of the same study appear separately

Additionally, I’ve noticed that Google Scholar can include blog posts if they are structured like scientific articles and feature a list of references. While it's interesting that these show up in search results, omitting them can help keep your profile more relevant for viewers.

Can I make manual entries?

In theory, it is possible to add your own items to Google Scholar, based on GitHub repositories or other scientific output that is not found by Google Scholar. However, I would not recommend it since it may appear as if you were trying to artificially inflate the number of publications in your profile.

Highlight shared first authorship

Like most literature search tools, Google Scholar does not indicate “equal contribution” for first authors by default. However, in research, it’s common for two or more authors to share first authorship.

To correct this and ensure your profile accurately represents your contributions:

Click on the relevant publication in your Google Scholar profile.
Select “Edit” and manually add an asterisk (*) next to the names of equally contributing first authors.

Note: This edit will update the author list only on your profile—it won’t change how the paper appears in Google Scholar search results. However, it helps make your role in collaborative research clearer to those viewing your profile. For example, an item may then appear like this:

Image showing how your Google Scholar profile may appear if you highlight shared authorship

Set up personalised alerts to stay updated on relevant research

In addition to showcasing your publications, Google Scholar can help you stay up to date with the latest research related to your work. Here’s how to set up personalised alerts:

Go to your Google Scholar profile page.
Click the “Follow” button in the top right corner. The window below will pop up—select “New articles related to my research”.

Image showing how to set up personalised alerts in Google Scholar to stay updated on relevant research

With this option enabled, you'll receive email notifications about publications related to your research. From experience, about 90% of these articles may not be directly relevant, but the remaining 10% are often useful and worth your attention. It’s a much more efficient method than scrolling through journal tables of contents or relying on Social Media channels. The updates are quite independent of journal names and not biased by the usage of Social Media by a specific researcher. Therefore, it is also possible to spot relevant and well-done research published in smaller journals or by less prominent researchers, without losing track of “high profile” studies.

If you don’t yet have publications of your own, you can still use this feature. Simply go to the Google Scholar profile of your supervisor, mentor, or a leading researcher in your field, hit “Follow”, and select “New articles related to this author’s research”. This will keep you informed about the latest trends and studies in areas that interest you.

While these alerts can be helpful, they can also become overwhelming. If you have that feeling that’s okay. Just cancel your Google Scholar alerts and come back to a literature search at a later timepoint. We all should do our very best to purge any sources of unnecessary stress and distraction from our work life as researchers.

Final thoughts

I’m a big fan of Google Scholar. But it is always important not to get sidetracked by pure citation counts. Don’t judge a person based on their profile with its citation counts per year and number of publications. Always pick one or two first-author publications that you can judge scientifically, and check out what is behind the title, in the abstract, the figures, the methods sections, or the acknowledgments. Citation metrics can be manipulated and gamed, and nothing replaces the deep dive into real science.

Google Scholar also comes with quite good documentation. Check it out!

About the author

Peter Rupprecht is a junior group leader at the University of Zurich. He is studying calcium signals and their relationship to action potentials and plasticity in neurons, as well as calcium signals in astrocytes. On the side, Peter is running a blog on neuroscience and neurotechnology. You can read his most recent work on bioRxiv: Spike inference from calcium imaging data acquired with GCaMP8 indicators.