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Entities

Users

TODO, a user

Affiliations

How Affiliations Are Attributed to Users

Affiliations of users in our system can be attributed in two ways: manually via the interface or automatically through periodic synchronization with OpenAlex.

Manual Attribution

To manually attribute an affiliation to a user, follow these steps:

  1. Claim the User: If you are an administrator or an authorized user, claim the user profile you want to edit.
  2. Authenticate: Log in and navigate to the user panel.
  3. Assign an Affiliation: You can manually add or modify an affiliation directly through the interface.

Manual entries take precedence over automatic ones. If an affiliation is assigned manually, it will not be overridden by the automatic synchronization process.

Automatic Attribution via OpenAlex

Every month, a background task runs to retrieve user affiliations from the OpenAlex database. These affiliations are determined as follows:

  • OpenAlex assigns affiliations to a user's works based on a machine learning algorithm.
  • The affiliations of the works are then used to infer the user’s affiliations.
  • If a user already has a manually added affiliation, the automatic process skips it.
  • If there is no pre-existing manual entry, a new affiliation is added automatically.

Example

  1. A researcher manually adds "CNRS" as their affiliation.
  2. When the automatic update runs, it finds "CNRS" but does not modify the manual entry.
  3. A researcher has no manually set affiliation, but OpenAlex assigns them "Sorbonne Université".
  4. The system automatically adds "Sorbonne Université" to their profile.

Fixing Misattributed Affiliations

Sometimes, OpenAlex may assign incorrect affiliations due to issues in the machine learning algorithm. To correct this:

  1. Identify the Source Work
  2. Find the publication that has been incorrectly assigned an affiliation.
  3. Use the Official Correction Tool
  4. Access the tool works-magnet.esr.gouv.fr provided by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research.
  5. Submit corrections to improve the machine learning model.
  6. Wait for the Update
  7. Changes in OpenAlex typically take 2 to 3 weeks to be reflected in the database. See the official OpenAlex guidance here.

Important Considerations

  • Editing an Automatic Affiliation: If a user modifies an automatic entry, it is flagged as a manual affiliation and will not be overridden in future synchronizations.
  • Deleting an Automatic Affiliation: If a user deletes an automatic affiliation without fixing the issue in OpenAlex, it may reappear at the next synchronization. Always correct it at the source.

By following these steps, users can ensure that their affiliations remain accurate and up-to-date.

Organizations

TODO, ROR organization database.