Implementation Guide

This guide covers the technical setup of your sovereign scholar identity. It requires no coding skills, only the willingness to configure a few settings. The entire process takes approximately 45 minutes.

Phase 1: The Domain

You need to purchase the address. We recommend using a dedicated "Registrar" rather than buying it bundled with hosting. This gives you legal ownership and flexibility.

Examples of European Registrars:

• Gandi.net (France/EU).
• Infomaniak (Switzerland).
• Strato (Germany).

Privacy Settings (WHOIS)

When filling out the registration forms, you will be asked for your legal contact details. Crucial: Ensure you check the option for WHOIS Privacy (sometimes called "Domain Privacy"). This hides your personal home address and phone number from the public internet database.

Note on Account Email: Be aware that for certain Top Level Domains (such as .eu), the registrant email address is required to be public in the WHOIS database, even if you pay for privacy protection. Ensure you use an email address for the registration that you are comfortable having publicly visible.

Phase 2: The Mail Provider

Do not host your own email server unless you are a sysadmin. It is too difficult to maintain security and deliverability. Instead, pay a small fee to a privacy-respecting provider to handle the backend.

Examples of Providers (Support Custom Domains):

• Mailbox.org (Germany).
• Tuta (Germany).
• Proton (Switzerland).

Phase 3: The Connection (DNS)

This is the only technical step. You must tell the internet: "Emails sent to my domain should go to my Mail Provider." You do this by editing DNS records at your Registrar.

Your provider (e.g., Mailbox.org) will give you specific values, but they generally look like this:

1. MX Records (Mail Exchange)

2. SPF Record (Sender Policy Framework)

This prevents people from faking your email.

3. DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)

Your provider will generate a long code. You must copy-paste this into a TXT record. This ensures your emails don't go to Spam folders.

Phase 4: Defining the Identity

Once your domain is connected, log in to your Mail Provider settings.

1. The Scholar Alias

Create a new email alias using the specific username schol.

Result: You now send and receive mail as schol@r-yourname.eu.

2. The Compliance Aliases (Mandatory)

To comply with Internet Standards (RFC 2142) and appear professional to university firewalls, you must create the following aliases and forward them to your main inbox:

• postmaster@r-yourname.eu (Required for technical contact)
• abuse@r-yourname.eu (Required for spam reporting)

Note: Most providers (like Mailbox.org) allow you to add these for free without using up your plan's alias limit.

Phase 5: The Habit

Configure your email client (Thunderbird, Outlook, Apple Mail) to use schol@r-yourname.eu as your Default Identity.

Update your:

• CV / Resume
• ORCID Profile
• Manuscript "Correspondence" fields
• Conference slides