Help & Frequently Asked Questions

Choose either edition; both are free and have the same features:

• Microsoft Store (recommended): Install from Microsoft Store. Installation and updates are managed by Microsoft Store.
• GitHub: Download ScienceTracker_Setup.zip, extract it and run ScienceTracker_Setup.exe.

Start the app from the Windows Start menu. If its window is hidden, check the system tray.

Windows 10/11 (64-bit), internet access and the identifiers of the profiles you want to monitor. Scopus requires an Author ID and Elsevier API key; Google Scholar needs a profile ID; ORCID needs an ORCID iD. You can enable sources independently.

Scopus: the numeric Author ID (not a publication EID). Google Scholar: the value after user= in the profile URL. ORCID: the 16-digit identifier with check digit, e.g. 0000-0002-1835-0097. Enter IDs, not full URLs.

Open ScienceTracker from the system tray. Statistics shows source-specific publications, indicators and charts; Reports generates Word documents. The main window shows your profiles and recent updates.

Microsoft Store edition: updates are delivered by Microsoft Store. GitHub edition: use the built-in update prompt, which downloads the installer from GitHub Releases. Each edition updates through its own channel; the Store edition does not update through GitHub.

Both editions are free and need no license activation. External services, especially Scopus, may impose their own access requirements.

The visible profiles are Scopus, Google Scholar and ORCID. OpenAlex supports background bibliographic matching and estimated Scopus self-citations, but is not a separate selectable profile. SCImago and Crossref also provide supporting data.

ScienceTracker uses the official Elsevier API. Request your own key at dev.elsevier.com. A key alone does not guarantee access to every API endpoint; institutional permissions may also be required.

API access may depend on your key, network and institutional entitlements. If your institution supplies an Institutional Token, enter it in Settings. Otherwise check the reported error and ask Elsevier or your institution about off-campus access.

The services index different records. ORCID counts public works listed in your ORCID profile and does not provide citation totals or an h-index. Differences may reflect missing, private, duplicated or differently classified records.

ScienceTracker can access only ORCID works marked Everyone (public). Works marked Trusted parties or Only me are not visible to the app. In your ORCID record, set the missing works' visibility to Everyone, then refresh your ORCID data in ScienceTracker.

Google Scholar does not provide a guaranteed public API for researcher-profile monitoring. Rate limits, CAPTCHA, privacy settings or website changes may interrupt updates. Check that the public profile opens in your browser and try again later. A failed check does not mean zero citations.

Publications, citations, DOI, available document types, open-access indicators and SCImago quartiles; works closest to the next h-index; and charts for publications, citations, h-index and citation distributions. Availability depends on API permissions and locally saved data; year-based h-index figures are derived values, not necessarily historical Scopus snapshots.

It displays retrieved publications, citation data and distributions, and works closest to increasing h-index. Google Scholar Statistics does not automatically classify articles or assign SCImago quartiles. Links use a DOI when available, otherwise an identifiable Scholar record.

Public works by publication year and by type: Articles, Abstracts, Books, Other. “Abstracts” groups conference-related outputs, including papers, posters, presentations and proceedings; not every item is literally an abstract. ORCID Statistics has no citations, h-index or quartiles. Results can be exported to Word.

For Scopus journal articles, ScienceTracker matches the publication year and journal (preferably by ISSN) to an annual SCImago catalog. When subject categories have different quartiles, it selects the most frequent; ties use the worse quartile (e.g. Q3 over Q2). If category data are absent, the catalog's Best Quartile may be used as a fallback. This derived quartile need not equal SJR Best Quartile.

* means the journal has different SCImago quartiles across subject categories for that publication year. The displayed value follows ScienceTracker's selection rule, but the quartile relevant to a particular article may require manual verification.

The journal may be absent from the annual SCImago catalog, its metadata may not match, or the work may not be a journal article. First-time matching may download large annual catalogs; later checks use cached data. A missing quartile is not a quality judgment.

ScienceTracker calculates how many additional citations existing Scopus or Google Scholar publications would need to contribute to the next h-index threshold. It is not a prediction. ORCID has no citation data for this calculation.

The Scopus Citation Overview API may require additional permissions. Without it, the chart groups the current citation totals by publication year—not citations received in each calendar year. The chart labels this distinction.

ScienceTracker matches Scopus works to OpenAlex and examines citation relationships and author IDs. The result is an estimate, not an official Scopus count; it depends on matched-publication coverage. Results are cached to reduce repeated requests.

It compares candidate publications from Google Scholar and ORCID with the Scopus profile and highlights likely matches and records needing review. It cannot change Scopus records; an unmatched work is not automatically eligible for indexing.

Scopus and publisher metadata can be incomplete or inconsistent. ScienceTracker may refine records using already cached OpenAlex/Crossref data, without new requests during that step. Check the publisher for definitive DOI and access information.

Yes. Profile Statistics supports copying, HTML viewing and Word export. Reports creates Research Activity, Selected Research Outputs (5 or 10 works) and Research Impact Snapshot documents. ORCID reports do not invent citation or h-index data.

Go to Settings → Telegram notifications → Connect Telegram, open the generated link and start the bot. Sign in to Telegram beforehand. When the status says Connected, use Send test to verify delivery.

The current notification service is designed to suppress duplicate reports of the same metric state for one Telegram account, even across PCs. Local histories remain separate; this is not cloud synchronization.

Windows and Telegram notifications work separately. Verify your Telegram connection and use Send test. The backend may also suppress an alert already sent from another PC.

Set an interval of one hour or more. More frequent checks can trigger provider rate limits, particularly in Google Scholar and OpenAlex.

An optional application number used to display public ranking information from the National System of Researchers of Ukraine. It is not needed for Scopus, Google Scholar or ORCID monitoring.

The GitHub EXE installer is currently unsigned, so SmartScreen may display “Unknown Publisher”. Download only from official GitHub Releases and proceed only if you trust the source. The Microsoft Store edition is distributed through Microsoft's signed package channel.

A new installation has no cached publication data or accumulated history. Complete the first successful profile refresh; SCImago data may take longer to load. Features requiring historical data cannot immediately reconstruct past local observations.

The two editions have separate local data folders:

• GitHub: %LOCALAPPDATA%\ScienceTracker\
• Microsoft Store: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Chyc77.ScienceTracker_xzmsxqa4e66qw\LocalCache\Local\ScienceTracker\

Files include stats_history.json (history), science_tracker_cache.sqlite3 (cache) and update_diagnostics.log (diagnostics), where present. Back up local data before manual deletion or migration.

Yes. They can run side by side, with separate settings, history and startup preferences; each updates through its own channel. If both are set to start with Windows, both may appear in the tray. An additional older GitHub installation under Program Files is a different, legacy duplication issue and may require administrator permission to remove.

Install the same ScienceTracker edition on the new PC and configure your profiles. Close ScienceTracker on both PCs, then copy stats_history.json from the old data folder to the matching folder on the new PC, replacing the new file if needed. See the data storage locations for the GitHub and Microsoft Store paths. Restart the app to load the history. Configure settings and API credentials separately.

Academic services receive requests needed to retrieve the selected public or authorized records. Optional Telegram notifications exchange the information required for account linking and alerts, not your full local citation history. Never share API keys, Institutional Tokens or connection tokens in support requests.

Use GitHub Issues or the support contact listed on the website. Include your edition, version, Windows version, error message and reproduction steps. Remove credentials and personal details from screenshots or logs.