FAQ · Skills, confirmation, and access

Building your profile: how it works.

Add skills, link research sources and request confirmation from colleagues who know your role. Learn what others can see on your profile—and what confirmation does and doesn’t mean.

Records and sources

Each skill entry connects a technique or research role with specific research and your involvement. A source provides context; it does not by itself prove participation or proficiency.

Do I need to link a publication?

No. Add skills from research or training even without a publication. Link a protocol or project, or describe the research source, choose your role and request confirmation from a colleague who knows the work. A publication provides context; it does not replace colleague confirmation.

Research source · context supplied by you

What happens when I import a publication?

Importing a publication brings its details into Benchpro and may suggest skills. Suggestions are not confirmed experience: choose relevant skills, describe your role and select a colleague to ask for confirmation. Only some imported information appears during setup and on public pages.

Importing a publication does not confirm authorship, participation or a skill. PDF passages may be extracted automatically and shown as research context; they are not colleague confirmation. A contribution listed in a publication is also distinct from a colleague confirming your role.

Skills and your role

Choose a technique or research role and describe your involvement in specific research. Observed, Took part and Led are not general proficiency ranks.

What is a skill entry?

A skill entry connects a skill with a research source and your role: Observed, Took part or Led. You can add notes and select colleagues to ask for confirmation. Adding an entry does not confirm it; research context, publication-listed contributions and colleague responses are shown separately.

What do Observed, Took part, and Led mean?

Observed: Observed this work closely and can review how it was carried out.
Took part: Contributed directly to this work as part of the team.
Led: Led this work and can speak for the decisions, execution, and outcomes.

Choose the label that describes your role in this particular work. It isn’t a rating of your overall skill, seniority or the quality of your contribution.

Are suggested skills automatically added to my profile?

No. Choose suggestions that reflect your experience, describe your role and complete the details before requesting confirmation. Skills you add yourself follow the same process. Neither route confirms participation or proficiency on its own.

How do publication-linked entries differ from other research sources?

A publication-linked entry connects a skill and your role to a publication. Other entries can link a protocol, project or research activity you describe. In either case, the source provides context; colleague confirmation is recorded separately.

When are my skills saved?

A complete draft has a skill, your role and at least one colleague to ask for confirmation. Notes are optional. Adding your skills saves these details to your profile and creates confirmation requests. A queued request is not proof of email delivery or a confirming response.

Colleague confirmation: what it means and who to ask

Confirmation supports your account of a specific skill, research source and role. It does not certify proficiency. Awaiting response and Skipped do not count as confirmation.

Who can confirm my role, and how many colleagues do I need?

Choose at least one colleague who directly knows your role. A linked publication may suggest co-authors; otherwise, find a colleague through ORCID search. You cannot confirm your own role. Selecting a colleague does not send a request until you add your skills, and a request does not mean they have confirmed your role.

What do Awaiting response, Confirmed and Skipped mean?

Awaiting response: An actual request has no response yet. It does not confirm the entry.
Confirmed: A colleague confirmed the role in this specific research and skill entry.
Skipped: The colleague recorded no decision. Skipping is final for that request; it is not rejection or a promise to respond later.

What does colleague confirmation tell others about my experience?

A colleague confirmed your account of your role in specific research involving that skill. Observed can be confirmed too; it does not mean you performed the technique.

Confirmation is not certification of overall proficiency or confirmation of other entries. It does not assess a publication’s scientific merit, guarantee accuracy, establish suitability for a job or predict future performance. Research topics and learning goals are interests, not demonstrated skill experience.

Does requesting a review guarantee delivery or a response?

No. Benchpro attempts to email eligible confirmation requests, but submitting or queuing a request does not guarantee email delivery or a response. A request awaits a response until one is recorded; there is no guaranteed response time.

When does Benchpro show a skill as confirmed?

On a profile, an entry with at least one confirming colleague response is shown as confirmed. A grouped skill does not mean every entry or its highest role is confirmed. Talent discovery uses a separate stored status, set when at least half of an entry’s colleague reviews are confirmed; unanswered and skipped requests count in that total. The profile label and talent criteria are not identical.

Visibility, search, and access

Learn what others can see on your public profile, how companies search for relevant skills and how to get started as a scientist or company.

What appears on a public profile?

Your public profile can show your background, education, publications, external links and skill entries that qualify for public display, including your recorded role, linked research sources and colleagues who confirmed them. Sensitive account information is not shown. An entry does not need a publication to appear publicly.

Do unanswered or skipped requests count as confirmation?

No. Awaiting response and Skipped are not confirmation. An entry with another confirming response may still be shown as confirmed; the unanswered or skipped request itself does not support it.

What can company users search and inspect?

A company account is required for talent search. Search scientist profiles, filter by skills with confirmed experience and examine individual research sources and responses. Without these filters, do not assume a scientist has colleague-confirmed experience in the skill you need.

How do I access Benchpro today?

Scientists continue with ORCID to create an account or sign in, add skills and manage a profile. Talent search requires an existing company account. Access depends on current beta and sign-up availability: company registration may not be open, and availability and pricing can change.

Where should I go next?

Visit For scientists to learn how to build your profile, or For companies to find scientists with relevant skills and research experience. About Benchpro introduces our mission and the people behind it.

Ready to get started?

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