Researchers: how to find who works in an area
This guide does not profile people. Instead, it shows you how to find out for yourself who works in a field of research, and how to read what you find with a sensible eye.
Why this guide does not profile people
This guide does not describe or rank individual researchers. People change jobs, move between institutions and shift what they study. A page about a person would go out of date, and it could suggest a link or an endorsement that does not exist. This guide is not a directory, and it is not connected to any researcher or institution.
If you arrived here from an old link to a page about a particular person, there is no such page on this guide. The steps below will help you find current information at the source.
How to find who works in an area
Start with a paper
Find a recent paper on your topic using PubMed. The people who wrote it work in that area, at least for that study.
Read the author list
Papers list every author. By common convention, the first author did much of the hands-on work and the last author often leads the group. Conventions vary, so use this only as a hint.
Check the affiliations
Each author is listed with the organisation they were working for. This tells you where the work was done.
Look for a university research profile
Universities often publish public profile pages with a person’s role, research areas and publications. Searching the institution’s own website is usually more reliable than a general search.
Check the work matches the claim
If someone is quoted in the media, see whether their published work is actually about the subject being discussed.
Reading affiliations
An affiliation is the organisation an author belonged to when the paper was written. It might be a university, a hospital, a government body, a charity or a company. Some authors list more than one. An affiliation tells you where someone works. It does not tell you that the organisation has reviewed or approved the paper.
Reading declared interests
Papers include statements about funding and competing interests. Read them. Ask who paid for the study, whether any author has ties to a company with a stake in the result, and whether the funder had a say in the design or the reporting. Declared interests are a normal part of research and are not a mark against anyone. They help you decide how much checking a claim needs.
Titles, expertise and the media
A title such as “professor” or “doctor” tells you about someone’s career. It does not tell you that a particular claim is correct, or that the claim is in their field. When an expert is quoted, ask three questions:
- Is this their own area of study?
- Are they describing a study, or giving a personal view?
- Do reviews of the evidence point the same way?
Research is done by teams and checked by many people. One voice, however confident, is never the whole picture.