Merging duplicate Web of Science author records is a distinct, mechanical task from the search and disambiguation work covered in CASRAI’s Web of Science Author Search guide and the profile-claiming workflow in CASRAI’s Web of Science Researcher Profile guide — those two guides establish what an Author Record and a Researcher Profile are and how to claim one; this guide covers the actual click-through process for combining two or more of them once you’ve confirmed they belong to the same person. Clarivate documents two separate merge paths depending on whether the duplicate profiles are unclaimed or already claimed, and conflating the two is the most common reason a merge request stalls. This guide walks through both, sourced directly from Clarivate’s own Web of Science Help Center.
Why One Researcher Ends Up With Multiple Records
The Web of Science Researcher Profile system is built on a one-profile-per-author premise, but duplicates are common in practice for two structurally different reasons:
- Algorithmic fragmentation — Web of Science’s matching algorithm generates Author Records from publication metadata. A common surname, an inconsistent name form across a career, or a change in affiliation can cause the same person’s output to be split into more than one unclaimed, system-generated record. See CASRAI’s Web of Science Author Search guide for how this fragmentation shows up during a search.
- Duplicate account creation — a researcher registers more than once, or creates a new profile without realizing a claimed profile already exists for them. This produces two (or more) separate, claimed accounts, each with its own login and ResearcherID.
These two situations require different merge mechanics, described in the two sections below.
Merging Unclaimed Author Records or Profiles (Editor-Reviewed)
Use this path when the duplicate records have not been claimed by the person they belong to, or when you are correcting a profile as part of a records-management task rather than a personal account request. Per Clarivate’s Correcting Researcher Profiles Help Center article:
- Sign in to a Web of Science account.
- Search for the researcher’s name; on the researcher search results page, tick the checkbox next to each researcher profile or Author Record that contains publications by the same person.
- Click Merge records.
- Review the combined publication list. Tick any publications that do not actually belong to this author and click Remove — the list can be refined by author name, journal, or institution to make this easier. Removed publications remain visible in a separate Remove tab if you need to double-check the list before submitting.
- Proceed and submit the request.
Submitted requests are reviewed by Clarivate’s editorial team, not applied instantly. You’ll receive one email confirming the request was received and a second confirming whether the change was accepted. Clarivate’s stated turnaround is 3–5 days after acceptance before the merged profile is visible on the live platform — and its documentation specifically warns against submitting a duplicate merge request during that window, since a second request for the same profiles just adds another item to the review queue rather than speeding anything up.
A near-identical single-profile workflow exists for a profile that only needs publications removed, without a merge: sign in, open the profile, click Remove publications, tick the ones that don’t belong, and submit — the same editor-review and 3–5-day timeline applies.
Merging Claimed, Duplicate Accounts (Self-Service, OTP-Verified)
Use this path when you (or a researcher you’re assisting) already hold two or more separately claimed Web of Science accounts — each with its own login and ResearcherID — and need to consolidate them into one. Unlike the editor-reviewed path above, this is a self-service flow gated by ownership verification rather than editorial review. Per Clarivate’s Merging duplicate accounts/Profiles Help Center article:
- Log in to the account you want to keep using going forward.
- Click your name in the top-right menu, then Settings.
- Click Account Settings.
- Open the Delete/merge account tab.
- Choose “I need to merge duplicate accounts” and enter the ResearcherID of the duplicate profile.
- Submit the request.
If the ResearcherID you entered matches an existing claimed profile, Clarivate emails a one-time password (OTP) to that profile’s registered email address. You must enter that OTP into the form to confirm you actually own the duplicate account before the merge can proceed — this is the mechanism that prevents one account holder from merging in (and effectively absorbing) a different person’s profile. Once ownership is confirmed, you’re asked to choose which of the two email addresses to keep as your primary; the profile and ResearcherID tied to whichever email you select as primary is the one that survives the merge, and you’ll need to sign in with that primary email going forward.
Merging three or more duplicate accounts: Clarivate’s documentation is explicit that each duplicate must be merged directly into the one chosen primary account, one at a time — not combined into an intermediate profile first and then merged into the primary. Chaining merges through an intermediate account is called out as something to avoid, not just an inefficiency.
If the self-service form doesn’t resolve the merge (for example, the OTP process stalls or the accounts involved are unusually configured), the same form offers a fallback: submitting the ResearcherID opens a support case, and Clarivate’s Author Record team follows up by email to complete the merge manually.
Viewing a Combined Profile Without Merging
Web of Science also offers View combined record (surfaced during Author Search as viewing multiple selected Author Records together): selecting two or more records and viewing them as one combined set of publications and citation metrics. This is explicitly temporary — it changes nothing about the underlying records and doesn’t require review or ownership verification. It’s useful for a quick check (does combining these two records actually look like the same person’s real output, before committing to a formal merge request), but it is not a substitute for either merge workflow above if the goal is a permanently corrected, single profile. Use the merge and remove-publications workflows to make the change durable.
Reducing Future Fragmentation: Link an ORCID iD
Merging existing duplicates fixes the current state; linking a ORCID iD to the surviving profile reduces the odds of new fragmentation going forward, since it gives Web of Science a persistent, non-proprietary identity anchor to match new publications against instead of relying solely on name-based algorithmic matching. See CASRAI’s How to Register, Find, and Search for ORCID iDs guide, and the Web of Science Researcher Profile guide’s section on linking ORCID for the mechanics of connecting the two systems.
Why This Matters for Research Administration
A research administrator is often the one who notices the fragmentation problem before the researcher does — while compiling a publication list for a tenure dossier, a funder-mandated biosketch, or an institutional bibliometric report, and finding a researcher’s output split across two Web of Science profiles with two different citation counts. Knowing which of the two merge paths applies (editor-reviewed for unclaimed records, self-service OTP-verified for claimed accounts the researcher already controls) determines whether you can resolve it directly or need to route the researcher to their own account settings. Either way, building in the 3–5 business day Clarivate turnaround matters for anything on a submission deadline — start the merge well before the publication list is due, not the day of.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I merge two Web of Science author records that belong to the same person?
It depends on whether the records are claimed. For unclaimed Author Records or profiles, sign in, search for the researcher’s name, tick the checkboxes of the matching records, and click Merge records — Clarivate’s editorial team reviews the request, typically applying it within 3–5 days of acceptance. For claimed accounts the researcher already controls, use Settings > Account Settings > Delete/merge account > “I need to merge duplicate accounts,” enter the duplicate’s ResearcherID, and confirm ownership with the one-time password (OTP) emailed to that account.
What is the difference between merging accounts and viewing a combined record?
Viewing a combined record is temporary: it lets you see two or more Author Records together as one publication list and metric set without changing anything underlying. A merge is permanent — it consolidates the records into a single profile going forward and requires either editorial review (unclaimed records) or OTP ownership verification (claimed accounts).
How long does a Web of Science profile merge take?
Clarivate’s documented turnaround for the editor-reviewed merge path is 3–5 days after the request is accepted, before the change is visible on the live platform. The self-service, OTP-verified account merge for claimed profiles does not go through the same editorial queue, but still requires the OTP confirmation step to complete.
Can I merge more than two duplicate Web of Science accounts at once?
Yes, but each duplicate must be merged individually and directly into the one account you’ve chosen as your primary. Clarivate’s documentation specifically warns against merging duplicates into each other first and then merging that combined profile into the primary — merge each duplicate straight into the primary, one at a time.
Do I need an ORCID iD to merge Web of Science author records?
No, an ORCID iD is not required to merge existing duplicate records or accounts. It’s still worth linking one to the surviving profile afterward, since it gives Web of Science a persistent, non-name-based identity anchor that reduces the odds of new fragmentation appearing in the future.
What happens to citation metrics after a Web of Science profile merge?
Once the merge is applied, citation metrics are recalculated from the consolidated publication list on the surviving profile, rather than being split across the formerly separate records. Publications removed during the merge review (because they were confirmed not to belong to this author) are excluded from that recalculation.
