Start from a list of names

Goal: import a list of people (a team, a network, the members of a committee), make sure each one is the right person in the bibliographic services, merge the people listed twice, and collect their texts.

You need: cartolex installed, an internet connection, and a list of names: a spreadsheet saved as CSV, or names you can paste, one per line. Optional columns help: an ORCID iD or an OpenAlex id (a person with one is found directly), a lab or an institution (it becomes their organisation and ranks the candidates), any other column (career stage, team, country) becomes a filter of the map.

It takes: a few minutes, plus about a minute per twenty people to check identities.

A list may look like this (comma, semicolon or tab separated, with or without a header):

Name,Lab,Career stage
"Durlelmais, Luca",BEG-MAR,phd
"Stordomaro, Ada",BEG-MAR,senior
"Vaifiendec, Xavi",MGT-BRE,senior

Steps

1. Create the project

On the Projects screen, press Create a project, keep A list of people under Start from, fill in the Name, the field’s title, the Description, the Languages of the texts and the Folder, then press Create the project. The People screen opens.

2. Import the list

Press Import, then A list of people. Choose the File, or paste the names in Or paste the list (« Last, First » or « First Last », one per line), and press Read the list.

cartolex proposes how to read each column, under Read as: a full name, last and first names, an ORCID iD, an OpenAlex author id, an idHAL, a role, an organisation (one per level of the project), Keep as a filter, or Ignore. Change any that is wrong. E-mail addresses are never stored: a column of them is refused. Choose the Role of the people added (Mapped by default), then press Import N rows.

You should see « N people added », and the possible duplicates the import found.

3. Merge the people listed twice

The same person often appears twice in a list (« Ada Stordomaro » and « A. Stordomaro »), sometimes three times or more. The Duplicates tab lists the groups of people that may be one person, each with its likelihood: two rows, or three records of one person and more. Choose a group: the panel puts them side by side (names, ORCID, records, organisations, texts, co-authors) and says why each pair was proposed, for and against.

Decide with the buttons or the keyboard: 1 or 2 one person (keeping the left or the right row), D two people, L later. In a group of three or more, 1…9 keeps that one and merges the people ticked into it, Shift+1…Shift+9 ticks or unticks one, and D sets the unticked apart from the others (all ticked: they are all different people). A merge keeps the texts and records of every row, is undone at once from the message that follows it, and later from the person’s sheet (Unmerge). Merge the clear pairs merges, in one step you can undo, the pairs that share an ORCID or a record; Merge above a likelihood… merges every pair at least as likely as the threshold you choose (50 % at first), after a preview.

Pairs come back here after each import or collection, with what the texts then tell (a shared ORCID, texts at the same place). When you know that people are one person and nobody proposed them, select their rows on the People tab and choose Same person…, or open one person’s sheet and choose Same person as… to find the others by name.

4. Find their identities

Press Collect, then Find identities. For each person whose identity waits, cartolex looks for candidate records in OpenAlex (with the ORCID registry as evidence), and in HAL when Search HAL too is ticked. Press What leaves the computer: the names, and the institutions your list states, go to OpenAlex. Tick « I have read what leaves the computer », press Start.

5. Check who is who

Open the Identities tab. The list holds everyone waiting for a check; choose a person to see their candidates on the right, each with its identifier, its works and years, its score and the evidence behind it (the same name, the same ORCID, the stated institution).

The keyboard does it all: ↑ ↓ a person, 1–9 a candidate, N none of these, Enter confirms; each decision is saved at once and the next person comes. A person can have several records: confirm each. If you know the record, paste it under « Or paste a record » (orcid:…, openalex:A…, hal:…) and press Use this record. Accept the clear matches confirms in one go the people with a single strong candidate (shown under Single clear matches).

Namesakes are common: when two candidates look alike, compare their institutions, years and topics, and choose None of these rather than a guess. A record found by the name only (a HAL author form without an identifier) can be seen, not confirmed.

You should see « Nobody waits for a check ».

6. Harvest and build

Press Collect, then Harvest texts, read what leaves the computer, tick, Start. When it ends, the Coverage tab tells who has enough texts; Retry the N that failed asks again for the people whose collection failed. Then Go to the build, as in Your first map, with the demo project.

On the map, your list’s extra columns are Filters: show only the senior researchers, or one team.

If something is not right

• A column is read wrongly: Back in the Import dialog, or import again with the right reading: a person already in the project keeps their decisions.

• Nobody found for someone: their sheet (Enter on their row in the People tab) gives the first blocking cause. Add their ORCID in a new import, paste a record on the Identities tab, or Add documents (their PDFs).

• A wrong record was confirmed: on the person’s sheet, Change identity… opens the choice again: pick another candidate (1–9, Enter), paste their record or ORCID, or None of these (N). On the command line, cartolex collect confirm FOLDER <person> <record> does the same (The command line). Harvest again: the new harvest replaces what the wrong record brought.

• Two different ORCIDs on a pair: cartolex refuses to merge them unless you insist (Merge anyway): two iDs are usually two people.

More: Collecting people and texts and Privacy and personal data.