1. Academic Presence on OWL
Your OpenWorldLab profile is your public scientific identity. It bridges your verified academic credentials, published preprints and articles, micro-research updates (sparks), institutional affiliations, and group memberships into a single, cohesive academic portfolio.
2. The 15 User Types & Roles
OWL provides 15 tailored user categories ordered roughly by academic career progression:
| Career Stage / Role | Description |
|---|---|
| Student | Studying at undergraduate or masters level. |
| PhD Candidate | Working toward a doctorate. |
| Postdoctoral Researcher | Holding a doctorate and working on a fixed-term research appointment. |
| Research Staff / Technician | Supporting research as permanent staff — technicians, engineers, data and lab managers. |
| Lecturer / Teaching Faculty | Faculty whose appointment is primarily teaching. |
| Assistant Professor | Early-career faculty, typically pre-tenure. Equivalent to Lecturer in the UK. |
| Associate Professor | Mid-career faculty. Equivalent to Reader or Senior Lecturer in the UK. |
| Professor | Senior faculty, typically leading a research group. |
| Researcher | Doing research in a role none of the more specific titles above describes. |
| Industry Researcher | Working in research or development outside academia. |
| Clinician | Practising medicine or allied health, with or without a research role. |
| Science Communicator | Writing about, teaching or broadcasting science to a wider audience. |
| Enthusiast | Here out of curiosity rather than professionally. |
| Institution | An account representing an organisation rather than a person. |
| Funder | Funding research — a foundation, agency or individual donor. |
3. ORCID OAuth Verification
To eliminate fake profiles and impersonation, OWL integrates directly with ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) via official 3-legged OAuth authentication.
- Connect your ORCID iD by editing your public profile header.
- You authenticate securely through the official ORCID authorization screen.
- OWL records the cryptographically verified 16-character ORCID iD (e.g.
0000-0002-1825-0097). - Uniqueness Constraint: Exactly one OWL account can claim a given ORCID iD.
- Your profile proudly displays the verified green ORCID badge linking to your official publication record.
4. Institutional Email Verification
Display verified badges for your current and past academic appointments:
- Go to Settings > Affiliations.
- Select your university or research institute from our global registry.
- Enter your official academic email address (e.g.
jane.doe@physics.ox.ac.uk). - Click the challenge verification link sent to your inbox.
- Active vs Past Affiliations: Current appointments receive an active green badge (Verified Affiliation). If an end date in the past is recorded, the badge automatically shifts to a muted slate tone (Past Affiliation) to prevent misrepresenting current employment.
5. Profile Customization & Taxonomy
- Avatar: 1:1 square photo (up to 1MB, automatically converted to WebP).
- Banner Cover: 4:1 panoramic header (1920×480px, up to 2MB).
- Research Interest Taxonomy: Add up to 8 multi-level hierarchical paths (e.g. Computer Science / AI / Reinforcement Learning). These expand across sub-branches to power your visibility in global topic feeds.
- Academic Links: Connect Google Scholar, ResearchGate, DBLP, arXiv, GitHub, and personal websites.
6. Sparks vs Articles
Sparks (Micro-Posts)
Fast, lightweight posts up to 1,024 characters. Ideal for preliminary lab data, conference notes, research inquiries, code snippets, or paper announcements.
Articles (Long-Form)
Full-length rich-text publications supporting formatted typography, LaTeX/mathematical notation, syntax-highlighted code blocks, embedded charts, and downloadable datasets.
7. Notifications & Preferences
Manage incoming alerts across five discrete notification categories in Settings > Notifications:
- Social: Likes, bookmarks, replies, new followers, group invitations, and group-to-group link requests.
- Chat: Direct researcher messages and synchronized group messaging channels under Messages.
- Fundraising: Campaign review decisions, milestone goals, and backer pledges.
- System: Platform announcements and content moderation notices.
- Security: New device logins, password resets, and email modifications (mandatory alerts).
8. Security & Two-Factor Authentication (TOTP)
Protect your account and group administrative privileges:
- Go to Settings > Security (2FA).
- Click Enable 2FA (TOTP) and scan the QR code with your authenticator app (Google Authenticator, Apple Passwords, 1Password, Authy).
- Enter the 6-digit confirmation code.
- Emergency Recovery Codes: Save your one-time backup codes in a secure password manager.
9. Developer API Keys
Automate publications and integrate lab repositories using the RESTful Content API:
- Key Format:
owl_sk_<id>_<secret>. - Zero-Leakage Security: The secret is displayed once upon creation and stored exclusively as a SHA-256 digest in the database.
- Endpoints: Authorized developers can create, list, and revoke programmatic keys via
/api/v1/keysor request developer access via our Contact Form.