I enhanced the VLDB 2012 program with author queries to the DBLP Computer Science Bibliography for my own purposes.
After using that listing myself for a few days, it occurred to me that I should be using DBLP entries as author identifiers throughout my posts, at least when such entries exist.
For several reasons, but mostly:
- DBLP maintains the publication listings (not by me!)
- DBLP maintains pointers to other databases and resources (also not by me!)
- DBLP maintains advanced search capabilities beyond authors (again, not by me!)
If you noticed not by me forming a pattern, you would be correct. There is a pattern.
The pattern?
Using DBLP author pages as identifiers, I leverage on (not duplicate) the work of the DBLP project.
To the benefit of my readers. (Not to mention myself.)
The DBLP link brings an author’s publication history, their co-authors, and additional bibliographic resources. (That’s a triple I like.)
It takes a moment to insert the link but the payoff is substantial.
When you cite a CS author in your blog, include their DBLP link. We will all thank you for it.
(I did that once upon a time but lapsed. Will be cleaning up older entries and trying to do better in the future.)
PS: Similar sources of identifiers for other disciplines?