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Your Google Scholar ID is the value after user= in the address of your Scholar profile. Open your profile, look at the address bar, and copy the characters between user= and the next &. The full link has the form https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ID&hl=en, and it only works for other people while your profile is public.
What a Google Scholar ID is
Google’s Scholar Profiles help describes the profile address as https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ID&hl=en and says the ID identifies your Google Scholar profile. It is assigned by Google when the profile is created, so it is not something you choose, register or look up in a separate registry. It is also not an ORCID iD or a Scopus Author ID: those are issued by other organisations and live in other systems (see the identifier section below).
The hl=en part is only the interface language, so the ID is the user= value alone. For background on what the profile is and what it is for, see the Google Scholar Citations profile definition.
How to find your Google Scholar ID
You can read the ID from the address of your own profile in a few seconds.
- Sign in to the Google account that created the profile and open your Scholar profile page.
- Look at the address in your browser’s address bar. It will look like
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ID&hl=en. - Copy the characters that follow
user=, stopping at the next&if there is one. That string is your Google Scholar ID.
If you do not yet have a profile, there is no ID to find. Create the profile first (next section) and the ID exists from that moment.
Finding someone else’s ID
Open that person’s public profile and read the user= value from the address in the same way. A profile you can open is one its owner has made public; a private profile has no link that works for anyone else.
How to create (make) a Google Scholar profile
Google’s help page gives this sequence for setting up a profile:
- Sign in to a Google account. Google’s page suggests a personal account, to keep the profile long-term.
- Open the “Scholar profile sign up form”.
- Confirm your name, then enter your affiliation and your interests, along with your university email.
- Add your articles, either by article groups or one at a time.
- Choose whether updates to the profile are applied automatically or reviewed by you first.
- Finish by uploading a photo, verifying your university email, checking the article list and making the profile public.
For the choices that affect how findable the profile is (keywords, name consistency, merging duplicates), read how to create and optimize a Google Scholar profile.
How to make a Google Scholar profile public
A new profile is not visible to others until you publish it. According to Google’s help page:
- Click the “Edit” button next to your name.
- Check the “Make my profile public” box.
- Click “Save”.
Public is not the same as searchable
Making a profile public gives it a link that anyone can open. Google’s help page adds that appearing in Scholar search needs more: the profile must be public and carry a verified email address at your university, and a non-institutional address such as gmail.com does not qualify. To verify, click “Edit”, add your institutional email, click “Save”, then follow the verification link Google emails to you. In practice that means two profiles can both be public while only one shows up when a colleague searches your name.
How to share your Google Scholar profile link
Copy the profile address from your browser (the https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ID&hl=en form) and paste it wherever you want it: a homepage or lab page, an email signature, a CV or a social media post. Google states that the link lets others view but not edit the profile, and that it works only if the profile is public. If someone reports that your link does not open, check the “Make my profile public” box first.
How to make a profile private or remove articles
To take a profile out of public view, repeat the public steps in reverse: click “Edit” next to your name, uncheck “Make my profile public”, and click “Save”. The link then stops working for everyone else.
To remove individual articles, select them in your article list and click “Delete”. Deleted articles are moved to the Trash rather than erased at once: choose “View trash”, select the article, and click “Restore” to bring it back.
Deleting the whole profile
Google documents two controls: the private setting above, which takes the profile out of public view, and “Delete” for individual articles. Google publishes no step for deleting a whole profile, so make the profile private and remove the articles you do not want kept. If you have a duplicate profile after a name or affiliation change, the guide to missing and inaccurate citations on a Scholar profile covers consolidating the two.
Common problems
- The link opens for you but not for others. You are signed in to the owning account while the profile is still private. Check “Make my profile public” under “Edit”.
- The profile is public but nobody finds it by name. Searchability needs a verified institutional email as well as the public setting. Add and verify it under “Edit”.
- Articles disappeared. Check “View trash” and use “Restore”.
Using your Google Scholar ID alongside ORCID and Scopus
A Google Scholar ID identifies a profile inside Google Scholar only. ORCID issues the ORCID iD and Scopus assigns its own Scopus Author ID, so a researcher can hold three unrelated identifiers across the three systems. The Scholar ID is most useful as a link you hand to colleagues or paste into a CV; it is not a substitute for the other two. For the other two, see the definitions of ORCID iD and Scopus Author ID, the guide to adding Google Scholar publications to ORCID, and the comparison of Google Scholar and Scopus.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find my Google Scholar ID?
Open your profile and copy the value after user= in the address bar. That value is the ID.
How do I share my Google Scholar profile link?
Copy the profile address from the browser and paste it where you need it. Others can open it only if the profile is public, and they can view but not edit it.
How do I create a Google Scholar profile?
Sign in to a Google account, open the Scholar profile sign up form, confirm your name, enter your affiliation and interests, add your articles, choose how updates are applied, verify your university email and make the profile public.
How do I make my Google Scholar profile public?
Click “Edit” next to your name, check “Make my profile public” and click “Save”. To appear in Scholar search you also need a verified institutional email.
How do I delete a Google Scholar profile?
Google publishes no step for deleting a whole profile. You can uncheck “Make my profile public” to make the profile private, and use “Delete” to remove articles, which move to the Trash and can be restored.
Sources
- Google Scholar, Scholar Profiles help, checked 2026-10-29.
- Google Scholar, Google Scholar Help, checked 2026-10-29.
