System, computer program product and computer-implemented method for sharing academic user profiles and ranking academics users

Abstract

A system for sharing academic articles and credential information for a plurality of academic users is described herein. Embodiments of the system, computer program product and computer-implemented method perform a process for gathering data related to the academic user and a process for determining a reputation ranking for the academic user by executing the steps of: creating a user profile for the academic user from attribute information gathered from a user profile prompt, enabling the user profile from the academic user to be viewed by academic and non-academic users to provide a rank selection for the user profile for the academic user according to at least one of research quality, credentials, research articles, and user activity, and determining a reputation ranking for the user profile from the rank selection of the other academic users.

1 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
 storing, in a database, data associated with user profiles for a plurality of academic users;   receiving, for at least some of the user profiles, reputation selections from a plurality of ranking users;   assigning ranking weights to the reputation selections based upon at least one of the ranking users' reputation ranking, academic credentials, publication volume, or user activity; and   determining reputation rankings for the academic user profiles at least in part based on the reputation selections and the assigned ranking weights.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising obtaining at least some of the data associated with the user profiles from the respective users via user profile prompts. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising verifying the data associated with the user profiles. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the reputation rankings are based on combinations of an interactive score and a traffic score for each ranked user profile. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the traffic scores are based at least in part on numbers of views or downloads. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the traffic scores are based traffic numbers for a plurality of traffic types, weighted based on the respective traffic types. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising receiving user comments on the user profiles and storing the user comments in the database. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising enabling users to at least one of like, “one-up,” follow, copy, or link to an academic profile, and storing any likes, “one-ups,” follows, copies, and links in the database. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising displaying the user profiles in a graphic user interface. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising publishing the computed reputation scores in association with the user profiles. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising publishing, in association with the published reputation scores, at least one of explanations for the reputation scores, percentile ranks for the academic users, or graphs showing the ranked user's reputation scores over time. 
     
     
         12 . A system comprising:
 a database storing data associated with user profiles for a plurality of academic users; and   a processor configured to execute a computer program comprising instructions to:
 receive, for at least some of the user profiles, reputation selections from a plurality of ranking users; 
 assign ranking weights to the reputation selections based upon at least one of the ranking users' reputation ranking, academic credentials, publication volume, or user activity; and 
 determine reputation rankings for the academic user profiles at least in part based on the reputation selections and the assigned ranking weights. 
   
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the program further comprises instructions to provide user profile prompts, at least some of the data associated with the user profiles being obtained from respective users via the user profile prompts. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the reputation rankings are based on combinations of an interactive score and a traffic score for each ranked user profile. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the program further comprises instruction to receive user comments on the user profiles and store the user comments in the database. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the program further comprises instructions to display the user profiles in a graphic user interface. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the program further comprises instructions to provide, along with the displayed user profiles, options enabling users to at least one of like, “one-up,” follow, copy, or link to the user profiles. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the program further comprises instructions to publish the computed reputation scores in association with the user profiles. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the program further comprises instructions to publish, in association with the published reputation scores, at least one of explanations for the reputation scores, percentile ranks for the academic users, or graphs showing the ranked user's reputation scores over time. 
     
     
         20 . A system comprising:
 a processor implementing a plurality of program modules comprising:
 a profile module to gather data from a plurality of users and, based thereon, create respective user profiles for viewing by other users, 
 a user comment module to receive ranking selections for at least some of the user profiles, and 
 a profile rank module to compute reputation rankings for the user profiles based at least in part on the ranking selections, weighted based on at least one of the reputation ranking, credentials, publication volume, or user activity of the respective ranking user.