In mid-2011, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) expects to introduce PubMed Author ID, a tool for addressing the problem of ambiguous author names within the biomedical literature. PubMed is the largest online collection of biomedical literature, with citations and abstracts for more than 20 million articles from biomedical and life sciences journals. With such an extensive collection it is common for multiple authors to have the same name (e.g., 100s of different John Jones), and it is also common for the same author to have published under different versions of her name (e.g., Jane Smith, Jane P. Smith, J.P. Smith). NLM’s National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is developing a system that will address this problem and facilitate accurate search and retrieval of a participating author’s works.
The specifics of PubMed Author ID are still evolving, but as currently envisioned authors (or their designees) would register for the service through My NCBI and identify their research articles in PubMed using provided tools; this identification of articles will allow NCBI to link alternate names/spellings associated with an individual. NLM has already laid the foundation for the system by developing a process for NIH-funded authors to identify their articles for grant reporting purposes. NLM expects to make PubMed Author ID interoperable with multiple external author ID systems, such as those developed by publisher groups, non-profits organizations, and other nations. NLM has not yet identified external author ID systems that it will incorporate in PubMed Author ID, but will work with outside groups as systems are developed in this rapidly evolving area.
To learn more, click here
