 Global phase symmetry of a complex scalar field

For $\mathcal{L}={\partial }_{\mu }{\psi }^{\ast }{\partial }^{\mu }\psi -V(|\psi {|}^2)$, constant $\alpha$ preserves both terms. This is an internal symmetry of a classical field theory with circle group $U(1)$. A spacetime-dependent phase would introduce derivative terms, so the ordinary-derivative density has only the global symmetry. The associated current is the Noether charge of a complex scalar field construction; the orientation $e^{-i\alpha }$ fixes its overall sign.