Scopus Author Search: How to Find and Fix Your Author Profile

If you need your Scopus Author ID — also called a Scopus ID, or the identifier tied to your Scopus author profile — you don’t create one, you find the one Elsevier’s algorithm has already built for you. This guide is the search-and-repair workflow: how to run a Scopus author search by name and affiliation, how to read the Author Records it returns, how to request a merge when your work has been split across duplicate profiles, how to correct a wrong affiliation or a mis-attached paper through the Author Feedback Wizard, and how to connect the ID to your ORCID record once you have it.

Looking for something else? For what a Scopus Author ID is — its format, how Elsevier assigns it, and how it differs structurally from a self-registered identifier — see the Scopus Author ID dictionary entry. To reach Scopus’s own author-lookup tool itself, go straight to scopus.com.

There Is Nothing to Register — Scopus Generates the ID for You

Unlike an ORCID iD, which you sign up for, a Scopus Author ID is generated by Elsevier’s matching algorithm once it finds two or more Scopus-indexed documents it judges to belong to the same person. There is no application and no button to press. The practical consequence for this guide is that “creating” a Scopus Author ID really means three things: get work indexed, find the profile Scopus has already built, and check whether it is accurate. The mechanism behind the assignment — which metadata signals the algorithm uses, and why it splits profiles — is covered in the Scopus Author ID dictionary entry. The rest of this page is the workflow.

How to Search for Your Scopus Author ID by Name

Before assuming no profile exists, search for one — most researchers with two or more Scopus-indexed publications already have at least one Author ID whether or not they know it.

1. Go to Scopus Author Search. From scopus.com (a subscription is required to browse full results, but the author-search interface and preview are reachable through most institutional library access), select the “Authors” search tab rather than the default document search.
2. Enter a last name and first name or initial. Searching a full first name narrows results; searching only an initial returns more candidate profiles to check, which matters if you’re not sure which name form Scopus indexed your work under.
3. Add an affiliation to narrow common names. An optional affiliation field is the single most useful filter for a common surname — without it, a search can return dozens of unrelated same-named researchers.
4. Review the results table. Each row is a separate Author Record showing document count, current affiliation, subject area, and (where available) an h-index. If your publication output looks split across two or more rows with overlapping subject areas or affiliation history, that’s a duplicate-profile situation, covered below.
5. Open the Author Details page. Selecting a result opens that profile’s Author Details page, which lists the Scopus Author ID itself (a numeric string), the document list Scopus has attached to it, and a link to request corrections.

At a glance, the Author Details page brings together: the numeric Scopus Author ID; the researcher’s current preferred name and affiliation; the full list of documents Scopus has attached to that Author Record; subject-area classification and, where available, an h-index; and the entry point into the Author Feedback Wizard for merges and corrections, covered next.

If a search by name and affiliation genuinely returns nothing, the most likely explanation is that you have fewer than two Scopus-indexed documents yet — Scopus does not generate a profile for a single indexed document, and self-archived preprints, non-indexed venues, and purely institutional repository deposits don’t count toward that threshold.

If You Find Multiple Profiles: Requesting a Merge

Split profiles happen often enough that Elsevier built a standing workflow for it rather than treating each case as a one-off support ticket.

1. From the Author Search results list, select the checkboxes next to the duplicate profiles that belong to you (verify by document titles and co-authors before selecting — don’t merge on name similarity alone).
2. Select “Request to merge authors.”
3. The Author Feedback Wizard opens, displaying the combined document list from the selected profiles for review, and prompts you to confirm or select a current affiliation for the merged profile.
4. Submit the request. Elsevier reviews merge requests before applying them — they are not automatic or instant, and typically take on the order of a few weeks to process.

Because the change goes through editorial review rather than applying immediately, don’t expect a merged profile to appear the same day you submit the request, and avoid submitting the same merge request repeatedly while waiting.

Correcting a Profile: The Author Feedback Wizard

The same Author Feedback Wizard used for merges also handles narrower corrections to a single profile, reachable from an Author Details page via a “request corrections” or feedback link. It supports:

• Setting a preferred name — choosing which name variant displays, when the algorithm has indexed you under more than one spelling or name order.
• Correcting current affiliation — selecting from a suggested affiliation list or specifying a different one, useful after a job change the algorithm hasn’t caught up with.
• Adding or removing documents — flagging a document that belongs to a different person with the same name (a false match) or pointing to a document that should be attached but isn’t.

As with merges, submitted changes go to Elsevier for review rather than applying instantly, and the profile won’t update until that review completes.

Linking a Scopus Author ID to an ORCID iD

A Scopus Author ID is Elsevier-internal and resolves only inside Scopus; an ORCID iD is researcher-registered and travels across publishers, funders, and repositories. The two can be connected without either replacing the other — Scopus can push your document list to your ORCID record, and your ORCID iD can be displayed on your Scopus profile. Per Elsevier’s Scopus Support Center, there are two equivalent ways to start the connection:

Option A: From an Author Details page

1. Open the Author Details page for your profile — the same page you reach from the author search above.
2. Select “Connect to ORCID.”
3. Sign in to ORCID, or register for an iD first if you don’t have one yet, and authorize the connection.
4. Follow the prompts to send your Scopus-indexed publication list to your ORCID record.

Option B: From your own Scopus profile

1. Sign in to Scopus and open your own author profile.
2. Select “Edit profile,” then “Connect to ORCID,” and follow the same authorization and send prompts as Option A.

Once connected, your ORCID iD becomes visible on your Scopus Author Details page, and the publications you sent appear as Scopus-sourced works in your ORCID record. One point worth being precise about, because it trips people up: this is a one-time push at the moment you connect, not an always-on automatic sync — Elsevier’s own documentation describes sending or importing your current publication list, not a continuous feed of every future Scopus-indexed paper. When new work of yours gets indexed later, the documented path is to go back and repeat the connect/send step so the new items get added. If you have duplicate Scopus profiles, merge them (above) before connecting to ORCID — connecting a profile you later merge into another can leave publications attached to the wrong side of the merge. For the full walkthrough, including what to check if the connection doesn’t seem to have worked, see Link a Scopus Author ID to ORCID.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is “Scopus ID” the same thing as a Scopus Author ID?

Yes. “Scopus ID,” “Scopus Author ID,” and the ID tied to a “Scopus author profile” all refer to the same numeric identifier Elsevier’s algorithm assigns to an Author Record — there’s no separate identifier hiding behind the shorter name.

Do I need a Scopus subscription to search for my own Author ID?

Full document-level browsing in Scopus requires an institutional or personal subscription, but many universities provide this through library access. If you don’t have subscription access, Scopus preview pages and Google-indexed Author Details pages sometimes surface enough of a profile to confirm an Author ID exists, though submitting corrections through the Author Feedback Wizard typically still requires being signed in.

How long does a Scopus Author ID merge request take?

Elsevier reviews merge and correction requests manually rather than applying them automatically, and processing commonly takes on the order of a few weeks. There is no published guaranteed turnaround time.

Can two different people end up merged into one Scopus Author ID by mistake?

Yes — because matching is algorithmic and based on name/affiliation/subject-area signals, occasional false-positive merges happen for closely overlapping publication patterns. The same Author Feedback Wizard used to merge duplicates is also used to flag and remove a document that was incorrectly attached to your profile.

Does deleting or hiding a document from my Scopus profile remove it from Scopus entirely?

No. Removing a document from an Author Record only detaches it from that profile’s grouping; it does not delete the underlying indexed record from the Scopus database.

Is a Scopus Author ID the same as a Scopus EID?

No. A Scopus Author ID identifies a researcher profile; an EID (Electronic ID) identifies an individual indexed document. They’re both Scopus-internal identifiers but refer to different things.

Does linking my Scopus Author ID to ORCID keep syncing automatically?

No — it’s a one-time push of your publication list at the moment you connect, not an ongoing automatic sync. New Scopus-indexed publications need the connect/send step repeated to reach your ORCID record. See Link a Scopus Author ID to ORCID for the full detail.

For the underlying definition and how a Scopus Author ID compares structurally to a self-registered identifier, see the Scopus Author ID dictionary entry. For platform-level coverage and access-model differences, see Scopus vs Web of Science vs OpenAlex. For the equivalent claiming/disambiguation workflow on a different platform, see Web of Science Author Search and How to Create and Optimize a Google Scholar Profile.