Scholars Tips

Looking for a way to make your Scholars@Duke profile shine? Check out these tips to make the most of your profile. Subscribe to our announcements if you would like Scholars Tips sent directly to your email each month.

July 2024: Overview and Current Research Interests

In this month’s tip, we’ll look at two sections of your Scholars profile that help define how you want to be perceived by others. The Overview section and the Current Research Interests section should complement one another, and strong profiles will utilize both of these tools.

Your overview is meant to provide a broad look at who you are and what you have accomplished. It should get people excited to view the rest of your profile—think of it as your own personal movie poster. Your current research interests, on the other hand, is where you can share specific topics of interest and discuss what you plan to do in the future. It is a section of your profile where you should be much more granular in discussing what your current research specifically entails.

How to update your overview:

1. Type scholars.duke.edu in your computer's browser address bar.

2. Click Edit My Profile under Update.

3. Log in using your NetID and password, and then click Manage Your Profile.

4. In the left-hand navigation panel of Profile Manager, select Overview from the About section.

5. Use the text field to describe who you are and what you have accomplished.

6. Click Save to update your profile or click Cancel to discard any changes.

How to add your current research interests:

1. Follow steps 1-3 listed above.

2. In the left-hand navigation panel of Profile Manager, select Current Research Interests from the Scholarly Output section

3. Describe your research interests in the text field.

4. Click Save to update your profile or click Cancel to discard any changes. 

June 2024: Showcase Your Presentations!

Did you know your Scholars profile has a spot for all of your important invited talks and keynotes? Your Scholars profile is the ultimate tool to demonstrate your contributions to the Duke community and enable discovery of your work. Be sure to list any notable presentations (conferences, lectures, interviews, invited talks, keynotes, etc.) you want others to notice.

Display notable appearances on your Scholars profile:

1. Type scholars.duke.edu in your computer's browser address bar.

2. Click Edit My Profile under Update.

3. Log in using your NetID and password, and then click Manage Your Profile.

4. In the left-hand navigation panel of Profile Manager, select Presentations and Appearances from the Professional Activities section.

5. Click Add and complete the required fields to describe your presentation and provide a link to any related materials, then click save. Repeat this step for every presentation you wish to display on your profile.

Did you know...

Your Scholars@Duke profile has a place for important committee service, consulting, editorial activities, event administration, etc., even those not associated with Duke University. In Profile Manager, the Service to the Profession section can be used to document contributions to non-Duke associations, whereas the Service to Duke section is for those types of contributions specifically made to Duke University.

May 2024: Put Yourself on the Map!

Do you want your research and expertise to appear on the Duke in the World map? It’s as easy as updating your Scholars profile to reflect your global scholarship! Any global scholarship from your profile is automatically added to the map for others to explore.

Did you know that Duke scholars represent over 150 countries with their research, expertise, service, and teaching? Wow! Sharing your global scholarship is a great way to connect with other experts who share interest in a particular region.

How to indicate your Global Scholarship:

1. Type scholars.duke.edu in your computer's browser address bar.

2. Click Edit My Profile under Update.

3. Log in using your NetID and password, and then click Manage Your Profile.

4. Select Global Scholarship from the Scholarly Output section of the Profile Manager.

5. Follow the instructions in the How To Edit box to designate a specific state, country, or continent that you’ve impacted with your work.

6. Click Save to update your profile or click Cancel to discard any changes.

Remember to update your Community Outreach

Often, your Global Scholarship involves some form of community outreach, which might include activities such as field work or advocacy. If this applies to you, be sure to indicate these activities in the Outreach and Engaged Scholarship section of your Scholars profile.

February 2024: Media Appearances

When your research and scholarship is mentioned in the news, Scholars@Duke automatically adds the link to each story to your profile. Your featured stories not only appear on your profile, but also display on Scholars@Duke’s homepage for the world to see.

The Scholars@Duke In the News feature collects stories that have been tagged by Duke’s University Communications, then it displays them on your profile. But what if you were mentioned in a news article that wasn’t tagged or featured in Duke Today? Not to worry! In just a few steps, you can add any other media appearance to your profile.

How to manually add links to news stories:

1. Type scholars.duke.edu in your computer's browser address bar.

2. Click Edit My Profile under Update.

3. Log in using your NetID and password, and then click Manage Your Profile.

4. In the left-hand navigation panel, click In the News under the Recognition section.

5. Click Add, then fill out the required fields to link your news story.

6. Click Save to display a link to the news story on your profile, or Cancel to exit without saving.

Remember to take pride in your accomplishments!

Were you featured in the news for winning a prestigious award? You can also update the Awards & Honors section of your profile to show off your achievements! This is a great way to keep your Scholars profile organized and up-to-date, and it helps increase exposure for your work.

January 2024: Web Links

Are you leveraging your Scholars profile to direct viewers to your lab page, department page, social media accounts, or any other important sites? When you add web links to your profile, you build incentives for visitors to engage with your profile and discover more about your scholarship and research at Duke.

Did you know?

We've recently updated the web links section in profile manager to include a field for "Link Type." With this option, we've provided a list of commonly used types of links (i.e. CV, LinkedIn, Lab Page, etc.) to help you better categorize your links.

How to Link Your Lab, CV, Department Page, LinkedIn, or Twitter Profile on Scholars:

1. Type scholars.duke.edu in your computer's browser address bar.

2. Click Edit My Profile under Update.

3. Log in using your NetID and password, and then click Manage Your Profile.

4. Select Web Links from the About section of the Profile Manager.

5. Click Add, then type the web URL and add a text label for the link.

6. Select the link type that most accurately describes your link - If none of the options are appropriate, select "Other."

7. Click Save to update your profile or click Cancel to discard any changes.

8. Repeat Steps 5-7 to add as many web links to your profile as you’d like.
   
   *Remove unwanted links from your profile by clicking the red X.

Reminder: Are your office hours up-to-date?

Take a moment to ensure that your Scholars profile accurately reflects your office hours for the new semester. Office hours can be found and updated in the Contact Information section of the profile manager.

November 2023: Tools for Annual Reporting

No matter what your department requirements are, Scholars@Duke offers you tools to make this process as simple as possible. Using the export feature on your Scholars@Duke profile manager, you can generate a CV, NIH Biosketch, or even copy your profile data to Word or email.

Did you know?

The Scholars@Duke Generate Report feature displays activities and outputs for a customizable range of dates. Copy and paste this report into Word, email, or other destinations.

How to display your report:

1. Open Profile Manager by clicking Manage This Profile in the upper right corner of a profile page.
2. On the Profile Manager home page, click Generate Report. The report window appears.
3. To remove sections, un-click the check box for a section at the top. For example, to create a current publications list, you can deselect all sections except publications.
4. Add a start date and an end date to show only the information produced during a date range, for example “2014-01-10 to 2014-12-31” to display the information produced during the year 2014. 
   Note: output and activities without dates appear in all date selections.
5. To change the format of your publication citations, select your preferred style, such as MLA, from the dropdown at the top of the report. Your publication citations will be displayed in your preferred style.

How to copy the report:

Click the Select all button and select Copy from your browser’s menu. Then paste the text into a Word document, an email, or other application window.

October 2023: Strengthen Your Credentials

September 2023: Boost your Profile SEO with Subject Headings

Did you know that Subject Headings help others discover your profile through our search filters as well as internet search engines? Subject Headings describe your research and scholarly interests in a way that may not be reflected in grants, publications, artistic works, or other scholarship, and they also help you connect with others who have similar research interests.

Subject Headings in Scholars@Duke can be added from three vocabularies: the MeSH (Medical Subject Headings), LCSH (Library of Congress Subject Headings), and the custom Duke Subject Headings list. Try to add at least five descriptive Subject Headings so your Scholars profile can be found more easily by search engines.

Can’t Find a Specific Subject Heading?

Click “Request a Subject Heading” and follow the prompts, then the Scholars team will contact you when the term has been added to your profile.

August 2023: First Impressions Are The Most Lasting

As we prepare for the start of another academic year, consider giving your Scholars profile a fresh new look. Your profile picture is often the very first thing someone sees on your Scholars@Duke profile, so please take a moment to ensure you are leveraging your photo correctly to establish a friendly and professional first impression with your new students, patients, and peers. We’ve gathered five tips to help you select the perfect profile picture.  

5 Tips for a Perfect Profile Picture 

1. Choose a photo that looks like you.

 Make sure your Scholars profile picture is up-to-date (within the past few years) and reflects how you look on a daily basis – your hair, glasses, makeup, etc.   

2. Make sure your face takes up at least 60% of the frame.

Crop your picture from the top of your shoulders to just above your head so that your face fills the frame and shows off that pretty smile.

3. Choose the right expression.

You want to appear warm and friendly. That way, viewers of your profile (i.e., potential collaborators, students, patients) will be able to imagine having a pleasant conversation with you.

4. Wear what you’d wear to work.

Wear clothes that match the level of dressiness at your office. Also, note that solid colors tend to do best on camera.  

5. Choose a background that isn’t distracting.

After you put all that effort into having the perfect expression, you don’t want anything to distract from your face. Keep the background simple so that you are the focal point.