Library Help

To find out whether an author is an expert, follow the steps outlined below:

Explore

The first step is to find out what this person has authored. You can do this by searching Explore with the author's name. The default results display is by the latest publications first, which can help you quickly see whether the author is currently active in the field.

What, where, when

Evaluate what the author has written by checking to see:

• What the author has published

• Where it was published (e.g. peer-reviewed journals, academic publishers, research institutions, government, or private entities)

• When it was published (recent or outdated?)

By default, results are sorted by the most recent publications, helping you determine whether the author remains active in the field.

Additional prompts

You may also want to use the questions below as prompts to further evaluate their research contribution:

• Is the author affiliated with an organisation? Is it a reputable one, i.e. a higher education institution, research institute, or professional body? Is the author's profile on an institutional website?

• What are the author’s academic qualifications? Does the author hold advanced degrees such as a PhD in the relevant subject area?

• Is the content/output current and still relevant? This will show you whether their expertise is up to date or whether they have made a historical contribution to the field.

• Who is the intended audience for their writings? Is the content written for other researchers, students, practitioners, or the general public?

• Is the author prolific? How much have they written about the area you’re researching? A strong and consistent output may indicate expertise.

• Has the author consistently written in the same research area? Or do they write across a range of topics? If so, are these topics connected, and how?

• Does the author collaborate with other experts? Have they co-authored with well-regarded academics or researchers?

• Does the author provide evidence to support their views? How is this evidence given (e.g., through citations, data, case studies)?

• Has the author participated in academic or professional communities? For example, presenting at conferences, serving on editorial boards, or participating in peer review.

• Does the author disclose any conflicts of interest? Consider whether industry or advocacy affiliations could introduce bias.

Cited Author Search

You may want to conduct an author cited reference search on a database that lists citation counts such as SCOPUS or the Web of Science. Citation counts indicate the impact of an author’s work, but be aware that they are not a perfect measure and may contain biases (e.g., disciplinary differences, language, or gender bias). See the UCL Bibliometrics Policy which highlights these limitations.

Google Scholar Search

Some researchers have a Google Scholar profile where you can view a list of their publications.

If the author's name is underlined, s/he has a Google Scholar profile. 

Searching for a title will also show the number of citations on Scholar. These will most often be higher than the citations on SCOPUS or the Web of Science as Scholar indexes more content than the databases.

An author's Scholar profile will collate the total number of citations for their works, which can be sorted by number of citations and year. 

Use the same prompts given above to evaluate the author's profile and research output on Google Scholar.