The main account settings allow users to change their display name, manage login information, customize their profile URL, and select their local time zone for accurate time display in messages and analytics. You can also add other names (or remove them) for search purposes.
To get to your account settings, click on your name in the upper-right corner and click "Account Settings".
This will open your general account settings with four sections you can edit. You can edit your names, login information, profile URL, or time zone.
Name
Your name is is how you appear to other researchers on Academia.edu and what we will use to help find your papers or mentions. You can also change this information by editing your profile. Click "Update Name" to confirm your changes when you're done.
Change your Display Name
The "Display Name" is the name that appears on your profile page and how others will find you. Edit your main display name directly in this section or by editing your profile.
In the Middle Initial box, please enter only single initials (no periods). If you have multiple middle names, enter only the first character of your middle names separated by a space.
Therefore, if my name is "Henry William Dalgliesh Cavill", I should enter "W D" in this box.
Add Other Names
Under "Other Names", click "+ Add Alternate Name" to include previous names or aliases you might have used in any professional capacity. Maiden names are a perfect and common example. Bonus: You can even enter your full middle name(s) in this area. Click "Add Name" to save your alternative names.
Login
Your login credentials are secret, visible only to you. If you want to use an email address and password to log in to Academia, edit those here. Click "Save" to confirm any of your changes.
Profile URL
The Profile URL is the website address people will use if they want to look you up! It goes directly to your profile page. Here, you can customize the suffix, or end, of your profile URL. Click "Save" to confirm any of your changes.
Your profile URL is made of two parts: http://prefix.academia.edu/suffix
-
prefixis is set by your primary affiliation and cannot be changed here. If you don't have an affiliation, this will say "independent". -
suffixis your unique handle. You can customize this to whatever you like!
For this example, let's imagine I want to change my profile URL, http://team.academia.edu/Hannah42. Since I want to change Hannah42, I can update the URL to say http://team.academia.edu/Hannah.
Time Zone
Select your local time zone. We use this time zone to show you when a message was sent or received and to display the time of various activities on your Analytics pages.
If you feel your time at Academia is at its end, you can also choose to delete your account.