The importance of having a

web presence for academics

Dr Chrissie Painting

@cpaintingnz

http://chrissiepainting.com

BSc Hons 2007: Lincoln University

PhD 2013: University of Auckland

Postdocs: University of Auckland

Australian National University

National University of Singapore

About me

Why have a web presence

You are easily contactable

Your work becomes better known & associated to your

name

Networking/collaboration/invited talks/attract students

People can find a collection of your work easily = more

citations & collaborations

Become part of a discussion in your field

Available to journalists & the public = outreach

Increase your

Ways to have a web presence

Personal website/blog

University website/profile

Google Scholar profile

LinkedIn

ResearchGate

Academia.edu

ORCID

Twitter

Facebook, Instagram, Flickr….etc etc.

Benefits of having a personal

website

You can keep it up to date

It can move with you as you change positions

It’s flexible so you can create your own online identity

Comprehensive – like an online CV

Essential components of a webpage

‘About me’ section

Bio about your research interest and current projects

Contact details (current affiliation, email)

Headshot photo

Publications (with links or preprints)

Optional: CV, blog, multimedia, teaching etc

Links to other professional networks

Some of my favourite examples…

Faculty:

http://www.kateumbers.com/

http://www.michaelkasumovic.com/

Postdocs:

https://michaelrwhitehead.wordpress.com/

https://jamesohanlonresearch.wordpress.com/

Students:

http://nudibranch31.wixsite.com/meganfriesen

https://leilaniwalker.wordpress.com/

Creating your own website

Choose a platform:

Make use of hundreds of free themes

No need to code – lots of built in features to use

Consider purchasing a domain name (e.g. chrissiepainting.com)

Where to host your site

Decide what pages you want to make & get creating!

Things to consider

Decide who your audience is, what you want to say,

and how you want people to perceive you

Keep it consistent & simple

Keep your sites current

Keep your sites professional

How to get yourself noticed online

Take part in online discussions on Twitter etc.

#phdchat #ECRchat #bigconference

Write/contribute to a blog or news story (e.g. The

Conversation)

Include links on everything like email signatures, CV,

conference slides, GoogleScholar profile, Twitter etc.

Twitter

Networking

Promoting your research/blog

Find job adverts & other opportunities

Learn about new research

Engage in community discussion

Follow conferences

Google scholar

Google scholar

• Add a photo of yourself

• Set up alerts to manage

your new publications

• Set up alerts to check for

new citations of your

work

• Clean up things you

don’t want & errors

• Manually add missing co-

authors & new articles

• Verify your email address

through institution

My Citations

Creating a Google Scholar

profile

- Add in your affiliation & university address

- Add keywords so people can find you when browsing

- Add in a link to your website- Add your publications then make it automatic

- Make your profile public

- Add your co-authors

Activity

Brainstorm what you would add to your own website

What do you want people to know about you?

What pages would you create (e.g. publications,

teaching, presentations)

Write a short bio to add to your homepage

Your ‘brand’ and identity as a scientist

Where you are now & current project