The Library: Research Visibility

Discovery is Leeds Beckett’s new platform for showcasing researcher profiles. It draws information directly from Symplectic and presents it in a searchable, public-facing format. 

Discovery raises the visibility of your research and professional expertise, supports collaboration, and strengthens your research identity. Visit Discovery to explore the platform. 

Discovery is managed by the Library Research Services team. If you have any questions, please contact us at openaccess@leedsbeckett.ac.uk

Please note that Discovery profiles differ from Website Profiles. For queries about website profiles, contact the Digital Team at digital@leedsbeckett.ac.uk.  

Both Discovery and Website profiles are created automatically from the information you record in Symplectic, there’s no separate login. 

To make the most of your profile: 

• Log in to Symplectic and check that your personal details, research interests, outputs, grants, teaching, and professional activities are up to date. 
• Write your overview in third person to keep all LBU profiles consistent and professional. 
• Add any missing information and review what you want to appear publicly. 
• If time is short, follow our MVP (Minimum Viable Profile) rule: complete at least three fields: Overview Statement, Excerpt Summary, and Labels. A profile photo is optional but recommended. 

Once saved, your changes will appear automatically in Discovery. 

View the step-by-step tutorial on creating your profile: How to create or update your Discovery staff profile via Symplectic

Tips for increasing your visibility 

Discovery profiles are indexed by Google and other search engines, so the amount and quality of information you include directly affects how easily you can be found online. 

Tips for improving your ranking: 

• Complete your profile fully. The more detail you include (such as the overview statement, research interests, labels, experience, and research outputs) the more likely your profile will appear in search results. 
• Use relevant keywords. Think about the words or phrases people might use to find research like yours and include them naturally throughout your profile. 
• Repeat key terms where appropriate. Mentioning your core research topics in more than one section (e.g. overview, teaching summary, and professional activities) helps reinforce your expertise for search engines. 
• Balance visibility and privacy. You can choose how much information to make public, but generally, more public content increases your online reach. 
• Keep your profile up to date. Adding recent projects, research outputs, and activities signals that your work is active and relevant. 
• Including rich, accurate information helps your Discovery profile appear not only when someone searches your name, but also when they search for your area of expertise.                                                        

Discovery allows you to personalise your profile, so it reflects your professional identity. You can: 

• Update your preferred name, title and pronouns 
• Add a profile photo 
• Adjust your privacy settings to control what is public 

These elements are important for ensuring your profile represents you accurately to colleagues, collaborators and external audiences. See our FAQ on names, titles and pronouns.

Discovery automatically displays your research outputs from Symplectic and adds links to: 

• The Leeds Beckett repositories (if you uploaded full text in Symplectic) 
• The DOI of your work (where available) 

You can also make outputs public or feature specific outputs to highlight them on your profile. Learn how to manage and feature your research outputs.

The outputs you choose to display in Discovery can also appear on your ORCID record, streamlining updates and avoiding duplications. Learn how Symplectic updates ORCID and Discovery simultaneously.   

Supervisors can choose to display their PGR students’ works on their Discovery profile. This is a valuable way to highlight postgraduate research and collaborative projects, and it helps prospective students understand your supervision interests. 

See the tutorial on adding student works to your profile: How to Record Research Award Supervision in Symplectic

If you are involved in research impact work, you may have already been contacted by the Research Impact and Policy Engagement Manager. If applicable, ensure your profile includes the ‘policy engagement’ availability label so this work is visible.