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In my university days, I published eight papers in journals of Elsevier and in the the top-50 publications. I used the email account provided by my university, since they promised me that such account was to be for life.

However, I was communicated a few days ago that on 01.02.2024 the account would be suspended due to economic cutbacks. Currently, I'm not linked with the university and I've got just a Gmail account.

I receive tons of emails, into my university account, from researches asking further information about my publications, or with research invitations, and I do not know how to make them reach me. I'm not sure if I should just drop an email to Elsevier asking them to change, somehow, my former university email address by the Gmail one.

Initially, I will try also to show my Gmail address in some academic profiles, such as ORCID, Academia.edu or ResearcherID. However, I am very interested in not losing emails from people who have read my publications.

Azor Ahai -him-
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Hookstark
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    Some universities will automatically forward email to another account. Ask. – Buffy Jan 02 '24 at 14:47
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    Just how many emails have you gotten about those 8 papers? Consider that the number will dwindle as time goes on (except in unusual circumstances where finding your contact info becomes much easier all of a sudden). – Jon Custer Jan 02 '24 at 16:20
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    "I'm not sure if I should just drop an email to Elsevier asking them to change, somehow, my former University email address by the Gmail one." << Why not? It doesn't hurt to try, in addition to other options. – Stef Jan 03 '24 at 14:17
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    A bit of a frame challenge: do you need to do anything? When someone sends an email to address that doesn't exist, service will normally reply with "can't deliver, no such address". At this point, the person interested in reaching you will open their favourite search engine and look you up, most likely finding one of your academic profiles with new email. Of course, it's a nice gesture when you make sure that your contact info stays valid (e.g., by asking for forward like the answer says), but... If someone wants to reach you, they will. – Yksisarvinen Jan 03 '24 at 15:59
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    @Yksisarvinen That's an awfully confident assertion. Emails are trivially easy to send and thus often spur-of-the-moment. Even the most minor of roadblocks is likely to drop off outreach precipitously, and in cases like this there can sometimes be significant issues with common names and so on. One could argue that it would only reduce low-value emails, but saying it definitely will have zero effect is completely unreasonable. – Matthew Read Jan 04 '24 at 01:32
  • You could try contacting your university and complaining vigorously. (Especially if you have a contact there who might in a position to do something.) The decision has probably been made without much thought to the effect it will have, and if you (i) can provide good evidence of the promise, and/or (ii) make it clear that it's likely to have a measurable effect on their citation metrics, they might do something about it. You never know. I doubt it really costs them much to keep an email server running, in the general scheme of things. – N. Virgo Jan 04 '24 at 12:50

4 Answers4

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There are some possibilities. Among them is to ask the university if it is possible to forward emails to another account. Many will do this.

Another is to create a web page in which you put sufficient information that an internet search will turn up your new contact information. In particular, include your old/obsolete email address on it, marked as such, along with the name of the university and other identifying characteristics. This makes a variety of online searches more likely to turn you up if an email gets bounced and someone looks deeper.

If you are a member of a professional society they may give out email addresses at their domain. This might be a better 'global' email address than gmail for a professional. ACM, for example, does this for members. (yes, this is an orthogonal note) ACM = Association for Computing Machinery, a professional organization in CS.

Buffy
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    IEEE provides members with IEEE.ORG email addresses, too. – Peter K. Jan 02 '24 at 19:17
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    I am not convinced that an ACM address is such a good idea... – Marc Glisse Jan 03 '24 at 08:50
  • Just don't rely on Facebook or the social media service formerly known as Twitter: they're every bit as predatory as the ACM. One useful thing is that any time you publish anything- including in forums etc.- make sure that your preferred email address isn't sanitised and gets into the usual search engines, i.e. use .at. rather than @ and so on. – Mark Morgan Lloyd Jan 03 '24 at 13:15
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    Hmmm, @MarcGlisse, ACM = Association for Computing Machinery, a perfectly reputable professional society for CS. What is your objection? Or do you mean another org? – Buffy Jan 03 '24 at 13:38
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    @MarkMorganLloyd, see the note just above. Why not ACM? It is in no way predatory. It is a membership organization. – Buffy Jan 03 '24 at 13:38
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    +1. If doing the web page thing, I would recommend including the titles of the papers on that page also, to create even more searchable terms. – Aldus Bumblebore Jan 03 '24 at 17:01
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    Does the ACM give you a lifetime address the first time you register, or do you have to pay every year? – Marc Glisse Jan 03 '24 at 22:32
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    @MarcGlisse, it is a perk of membership. Membership has annual dues. They vary depending on the journals you subscribe to and the SIGs you are part of. They aren't terrible for a professional and have other perks. There are student rates also. I don't know what happens if you drop your membership, but the email might get forwarded as usual. It isn't a site with registration, but a 75 year old professional org. See the history here: https://www.acm.org/about-acm/acm-history. But it is really intended for active professionals who attend conferences etc. – Buffy Jan 03 '24 at 22:37
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    I am familiar with the ACM, I've probably been a member a few times, I've organized a conference with the ACM label (such a bad experience that the conference left the ACM). And for someone who cares about email address stability, choosing an ACM address may (that's why I asked) be a commitment to pay the registration fee every year for the rest of their life. – Marc Glisse Jan 03 '24 at 23:05
  • I worked at an institute in Japan and indeed they deactivated my email a few months after, but I was able to get a forward to my current email – Pronte Jan 07 '24 at 08:23
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I suggest that you use the ORCiD (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) website not least because of it's well-established status as a site (and identifier) that links a researcher's activities across time, institution ... and even beyond. You have quite possibly already joined ORCiD but, if you have not, you will find that it is reasonably easy to create a profile and to list your publications.

More importantly, from the perspective of your immediate question, is the matter of an email address. First, it is possible to use a non-institutional address on ORCiD — if you have difficulty, contact the Support desk. The second issue is directly addressed in one of ORCiD's articles, from which I quote here:

The default visibility setting of your name when you register is everyone. The default visibility setting of your email address(es) is only me. You can immediately update the visibility of these items after registration by changing the visibility selector next to them.

Conclusion

If you register with ORCiD and either use, or add, a non-institutional email address then you will not only be able to list the publications that you think will be of interest to other researchers, but you will also be able to let them see an email address of your choosing where they can contact you.

CrimsonDark
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Providing email service has some expense associated; email forwarding (as long as the underlying website + mail server still exists at all) is a one-line database entry. Any competent technician in the university's I.T. department should be able to enter the instruction to "forward [email protected] to [email protected]". That, done once, then operates in perpetuity.

For the case that they're shutting down hosting lots of accounts, this should be an operation they're all thoroughly familiar with.

Ralph J
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ResearchGate, ORCID and Google Scholar are the main online platforms in my community. Use them and keep them up to date. I no longer have access to past emails from multiple employers - but everyone who wants to find me will do so through one of those three I expect. If you are in a field that uses other online platforms be visible on those.

RandomYellow
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