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How to claim your researcher profile

If a profile about you already exists (the build pipeline made one, or someone added one for you), claiming it makes you its owner. You can then edit, publish, and manage it. You can sign in with ORCID, Google, or both linked to one account. For why a claim needs proof, see Core concepts.

Three ways to prove a profile is yours

Section titled “Three ways to prove a profile is yours”

The server picks the strongest proof that applies.

  1. Your ORCID iD. If the profile’s id is an ORCID iD and your account has that ORCID iD linked, the claim works at once. Signed in with Google only? Open Settings (/account) or Your profile (/me) and choose Link ORCID iD. You come back to the same page, and the claim works.
  2. Your Google email, for a Prosopia-id profile. A profile whose id starts with local: (not an ORCID iD) can be claimed at once when its email equals the email of your Google sign-in, and all of these are true:
    • Google still manages your address: a Gmail address, or a Google Workspace account of your organization. A personal Google account that uses a university address does not count, because Google does not recheck it;
    • you signed in with Google (or linked it) in the last 24 hours. If not, sign in with Google again;
    • nobody owns the profile, and it was never released by an operator;
    • no other profile carries the same email.
  3. An operator’s review. For everything else, choose Ask for review and add a short message (a lab page, a publication, anything that helps). An operator approves or rejects it. You see the answer, and any note, on Your profile. You can have 3 requests waiting at a time, and you can withdraw one.

One profile about yourself

Section titled “One profile about yourself”

Every account has at most one profile about the account holder: your self profile. If you already have one and find another that is also yours, the two are merged instead of claimed, so you end with one profile:

  • the ORCID-id profile always stays; if neither has an ORCID iD, the profile you found stays (you can choose to keep yours instead);
  • the other profile is folded into it: missing details, papers, grants and links come along, and its old link keeps working;
  • if both have a SOUL, you choose which to keep, or both;
  • a merge cannot be undone, so the review screen shows everything first.

If your account gains an ORCID iD and there is no ORCID profile for you, you are offered Convert your profile to my ORCID iD: the same merge, into a new profile with your ORCID iD that keeps your handle.

The ORCID verified mark

Section titled “The ORCID verified mark”

When your profile’s id is your ORCID iD and you have signed in with ORCID (or linked it in Settings), Prosopia marks your profile as ORCID verified. Unlinking ORCID removes the mark.

Steps

Section titled “Steps”

  1. Sign in: GET /auth/orcid or GET /auth/google. You now hold a session cookie (rp_session).

  2. Read the session probe:

    Terminal window
    curl -b "rp_session=<your-cookie>" https://prosopia.databio.org/api/v1/manage/session
    • claimable lists profiles you can claim right now, each with via (orcid-match or google-email-match);
    • claim_suggestions lists profiles that carry your Google email but need more, each with a code saying what;
    • merge_offers lists profiles to merge into the one you already have;
    • claim_requests lists your requests and their status.

  3. Claim a profile from claimable:

    Terminal window
    curl -b "rp_session=<your-cookie>" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -X POST https://prosopia.databio.org/api/v1/manage/claims -d '{"slug": "jane-doe"}'

    Or ask for review:

    Terminal window
    curl -b "rp_session=<your-cookie>" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -X POST https://prosopia.databio.org/api/v1/manage/claim-requests \
      -d '{"slug": "jane-doe", "message": "This is my lab: https://lab.example.org"}'

What success looks like

Section titled “What success looks like”

A claim returns 201 Created with {slug, rid, via, owned}. The profile then appears under owned on the session probe, marked is_self.

What can go wrong

Section titled “What can go wrong”
  • 401: you are not signed in, or your session expired.
  • 403: nothing proves the profile is yours yet. The message names the way forward: link your ORCID iD, sign in with Google again, or ask for review.
  • 404: no such profile, or a hidden profile nothing ties to you. The two answers are identical on purpose.
  • 409: the profile already has an owner, or you already have a profile (merge instead).

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”