January 2016 23 C&RL News ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a nonprofit organization launched as a community effort to solve the name ambiguity problem in research and scholarly communications.1 Name ambiguity is a prob- lem for several reasons: • Shared names. More than one re- searcher—often in the same field and/or institution—may have the same name. In some countries this is a major problem. For example, in Korea, more than half the popu- lation share the same five last names. • Different versions of a name. For ex- ample, the use of a full name versus initials. • Transliteration. Even if a researcher’s name is unique, it can be difficult to connect it with their transliterated name, and some- times a name may be transliterated differently over time. • Accents and other diacritics. These are notoriously hard to express consistently as digital characters. • Name changes. This can occur as a result of marriage or for other legal reasons. • Multiple family names. This is especially an issue in Spanish-speaking countries. ORCID provides unique, persistent identi- fiers for researchers. Individuals may register for free, and use the tools developed by ORCID and implemented by the research community to connect their ORCID identi- fier with their other identifiers, affiliations, and creative and scholarly works. These connections help improve the research dis- covery process by unambiguously associat- ing individual researchers with their works. They reduce reporting burdens by enabling automated updating of a researcher’s records in research information or profile systems. Validated connections may help to lay the foundation for improved trust in digital re- search information, e.g., when a university asserts an employer-employee affiliation con- nection with an individual. What is ORCID (and what is it not)? Unlike a researcher profile system, CV system, research management system, or reporting interface, ORCID’s mission is to provide a registry of unique persistent identifiers for researchers. We work with the community to enable identifier “collection and connec- tion points” in systems frequently used by researchers—such as manuscript submission systems, grant application systems, and thesis deposit systems—and also to enable auto- updates of a researcher’s record when their creative and scholarly works are published. Researchers own their ORCID identifier and control what may be connected and the privacy settings on their account. Registration Alice Meadows Everything you ever wanted to know about ORCID . . . but were afraid to ask scholarly communication Alice M eadows is direc tor of communications f o r O R C I D , e m a i l : a . m e a d o w s @ o r c i d . o r g , O R C I D : h t t p : / / o rc i d. o rg / 0 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 3 - 2 1 6 1 - 3 7 8 1 Contact series editors Adrian Ho, director of digital scholarship at the University of Kentucky Libraries, and Patricia Hswe, digital content strategist at Penn State University, at crlnscholcomm@gmail.com with article ideas. Adrian Ho is an ORCID ambassador. © 2016 Alice Meadows C&RL News January 2016 24 is independent of membership, which means one may use the identifier throughout one’s career, irrespective of changes in discipline, location, name, or affiliation. ORCID records contain minimal data, simply describing con- nections between identifiers and pointers to the source items. ORCID is committed to being a fully open organization.2 We have a public API (applica- tions programming interface) that is openly available for all to use. It enables anyone to build applications that: • get a user’s authenticated ORCID iden- tifier; • retrieve a machine-readable version of a user’s public ORCID record; • perform a machine-generated search of the public data in the ORCID registry; and • allow users to sign in to a non-ORCID application with their ORCID username and password. We also take an annual snapshot of the data registrants have made public and make it openly available.3 Our documentation and presentations are published under a com- pletely open license (Creative Commons Zero) with no rights reserved.4 Our software code is made available on an open repository under an MIT-style, open-source license.5 We are equally committed to facilitating recognition for all forms of research contri- butions. In October 2015, Springer Nature became the first publisher to integrate ORCID identifier collection and connection points into their books workflow.6 Researchers may connect their identifier to their grants, affili- ations, or thesis, for example. In September 2015, we launched functionality that enables connections with peer review activities.7 The first three early adopters of this new func- tionality either have launched (or are about to launch) their implementations. Faculty of 1000 (F1000) has implemented the func- tionality for F1000Prime and F1000Research reviewers.8 The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is working with eJournal Press (eJP), its manuscript submission system, to imple- ment it across all 19 of its journals. Publons is connecting verified reviews on its platform with reviewers’ ORCID records.9 In addition, we are working with Mozilla, BioMedCentral, PLOS, Wellcome Trust, and Digital Science to enable contributorship roles to be connected to works at the time of publication and then displayed in an ORCID record.10 Based on the Project CRediT recom- mendations, these roles reflect and enable recognition of the varied contributions a re- searcher may make to a publication, ranging from conceptualization, data curation, and analysis to writing and editing.11 The collect and connect workflow is based on a badge tool developed by Mozilla that is used to issue and store contributor role badges. It also enables an authentication process that allows an author to connect to their ORCID identifier.12 How’s it going? ORCID is growing fast, and in many dimen- sions including users, members, staff, and community adoption. More and more researchers are actively engaging with ORCID. Three years after going live in October 2012, more than 1.7 million researchers have registered. These ORCID identifiers are associated with more than 4.5 million digital object identifiers (DOIs) for papers and datasets. These connections are searchable both in the ORCID registry and in discovery databases, including Europe PubMed Central, the Modern Language As- sociation (MLA) International Bibliography, Scopus, and Web of Science. Registering for an ORCID identifier is, and always will be, free for researchers. OR- CID’s ongoing sustainability is dependent on member organization dues. As of late 2015, ORCID has more than 350 organizational members, including national consortia agree- ments in Australia, Denmark, Italy, and the United Kingdom, and regional consortia in Spain and the United States. Two-thirds of our members are research organizations, and one third are publishers, repositories, funders, and scholarly societies. Many researchers register and use their identifier as they go about their regular January 2016 25 C&RL News professional activities. Our members have completed about 200 ORCID integrations— points where researchers may connect their identifier—and more are in development. Organizations with ORCID connection points include CrossRef, MLA International Bibliography, ResearcherID, Scopus, and UberResearch. Members use an authentica- tion process known as OAuth to collect and validate the researcher’s ORCID identifier and obtain opt-in permissions before enabling connections to data in the member system. While we are building our membership base, a generous grant from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust in April 2015 has allowed us to hire ten ad- ditional staff members this year, including regional directors and support team members in Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East/Africa.13 This distributed representation helps us to better connect with research communities around the world, and provide timely technical and user support. How ORCID can help Researchers are being asked for more infor- mation about their scholarly activities by their employer, funders, and numerous research profile and collaboration platforms. To ad- dress this issue, in October 2015, we launched our auto-update functionality with CrossRef and DataCite, nonprofit organizations that issue DOIs for papers and datasets.14 Now, researchers using their identifier when they submit a paper or a dataset can authorize CrossRef or DataCite to formalize the ORCID identifier-DOI connection when the work is published, and to update their ORCID record. In turn, member systems can be alerted when an ORCID record of interest is updated via the ORCID notification API service.15 Auto-update functionality has the potential to transform the way researchers manage their scholarly record, reducing the amount of time they have to spend manu- ally keying, connecting, and updating their research information. Researchers have been enthusiastic in their support. In the first few days after launch alone, 2,500 authors gave CrossRef permis- sion to update their record in this way. Research funders are starting to look to ORCID to help with reporting. At least five major funders are requiring that researchers include their ORCID identifier in their grant application: FCT (Portugal), FWF (Austria), National Institute of Health Research (UK), Swedish Research Council, and the Wellcome Trust (UK). Interestingly, our recent community survey (~6,000 respondents) indicated substantial support for ORCID mandates.16 Seventy-two percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that mandates would benefit the global research community, with 21% neu- tral and only 7% disagreeing or disagreeing strongly. Similarly, between about two-thirds and three quarters of respondents thought it would be useful for their publisher (75%), funder, institution (both 67%), or scholarly society (64%) to mandate ORCID. While we welcome community mandates, we also feel strongly that researchers must benefit from using their ORCID identifier through reduced reporting burdens and increased discover- ability. To this end, we are working closely with the community to provide technical and engagement guidance on effective collection and connection strategies. What’s next? Key challenges for ORCID In 2016 we’ll be focusing on consolidating our services, and ensuring they can support a growing user base. We’ll also be working on clarifying our communications, and, in particular, adding an engagement element to our extensive technical documentation. Enabling connections. We need to do more to ensure that ORCID identifiers are col- lected using appropriate, validated methods, and are published with research activities and affiliations. In 2016 we are launching a “Levels Program” to clearly articulate how organizations can and should be collecting and connecting ORCID identifiers. Our goals are to clarify goals and expectations across sectors and improve the trust in connections between researchers and their professional C&RL News January 2016 26 affiliations and activities. We will be enhanc- ing our current guidance by defining prior- ity implementation scenarios by sector and developing streamlined communications and technical documentation.17 ORCID is a com- munity effort: to benefit, all must participate. Publishers should be collecting identifiers for authors and connecting them with their publications; research institutions should be collecting identifiers for their employees and connecting them with the organization affilia- tion; funders should be collecting identifiers for applicants and connecting them with awarded grants; scholarly associations should be collecting and connecting identifiers for their members and meeting attendees; and, above all, researchers must register and use their identifier. In addition to clarifying com- munity priorities, we will work with members to map their current integration level and discuss options for deeper participation. Privacy. A fundamental principle of OR- CID is researcher control of privacy.18 ORCID adheres to a very strict opt-in privacy policy, but researchers are often unaware of this.19 We just launched ORCID Inbox, which helps users manage how and when they receive no- tifications from ORCID.20 We will be building on the successful ORCID video to develop short videos on how to manage privacy set- tings and connect to works and affiliations.21 We will also continue to assess our privacy policy and go through an annual external certification process. Explaining what we do. Communicating what we do (and don’t do) is an ongoing challenge. There is confusion in the com- munity about whether ORCID is a profile system (we are not) or who controls an ORCID record (the researcher). Our survey showed that, while most people know (and like) the fact that ORCID identifiers are free, most don’t know much about how ORCID works. In 2016, we will be launching com- munications webinars and providing specific library guide examples to support librarians and others responsible for engaging and providing tools training to researchers. We realize that in-person interactions are critical for fostering trust and understanding, and will be hosting 12 workshops around the world and three Outreach meetings. Check our events site for details and join us.22 You can learn more about what we’ve got planned on our public Trello board.23 How you can help We are hugely appreciative of the wonder- ful support we receive from the community. Librarians and scholarly communication pro- fessionals, in particular, understand the value of standards and persistent identifiers in creating a strong, sustainable digital research infrastructure, and you’ve really helped get the word out about ORCID. You can continue to help by emphasizing the roles that ORCID plays in the community—to reduce name ambiguity, to foster connections between research and researchers, and to increase trust in digital information. We encourage you to engage with our communications webinars and resources, and contact us if you have any questions or suggestions.24 Notes 1. ORCID: http://orcid.org/. 2. https://members.orcid.org/api/introduction -orcid-public-api. 3. https://orcid.org/content/download -file. 4. https://creativecommons.org/about /cc0. 5. https://github.com/ORCID/ORCID -Source. 6. https://www.springer.com/gb/about -springer/media/press-releases/corporate /springer-nature-implements-orcid-unique - d i g i t a l - i d e n t i f i e r s - f o r - b o o k s - a n d -chapters/6489300. 7. http://orcid.org/blog/2015/07/31 /orcids-early-adopter-peer-review-program -progress-report-0. 8. http://orcid.org/blog/2015/10/01 /opening-peer-review-process. 9. http://orcid.org/blog/2015/10/12 /publons-partners-orcid-give-more-credit -peer-review. (continues on page 30) C&RL News January 2016 30 Science and Technology Section Vice-chair/Chair-elect: Edward Lener, As- sociate Director for Collection Management and College Librarian for the Sciences, Virginia Tech; Kara Whatley, Head, Science and Engineering, New York University. Publicity Officer: Bonnie L. Fong, Physi- cal Sciences Librarian and Head, Emerging Technologies, Rutgers University; Kelli J. Trei, Biosciences Librarian and Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Member-at-Large: Peter Larsen, Physical Sciences and Engineering Librarian, University of Rhode Island; Rachel Hamelers, Head of Public Outreach and Information Literacy Ser- vices and Math and Science Subject Specialist, Muhlenberg College. Slavic and Eastern European Section Vice-chair/Chair-elect: Lana Soglasnova, Librarian and Slavic Cataloging Supervisor, Uni- versity of Toronto; Heghine Hakyoban, Slavic Librarian, University of Oregon. University Libraries Section Vice-chair/Chair-elect: Jody Bailey, Di- rector of Grants and Research, University of Texas-Arlington; Alexandra Rivera, Student Enrichment and Community Outreach Librarian, University of Michigan. Member-at-Large: Laura Gariepy, Head of Teaching, Learning, and Information, Virginia Commonwealth University; Carrie Moran, User Engagement Librarian, University of Central Florida; Maura Seale, Collections, Research, and Instruction Librarian, Georgetown University. Western European Studies Section Vice-chair/Chair-elect: Kristin Totleben, Modern Languages and Cultures Librarian, University of Rochester; Lidia Uziel, Head, Western Languages Division and Bibliographer for Western Europe, Harvard University. Secretary: Anna Shparberg, Librarian for History, German Studies, Languages, and Lin- guistics, Rice University; Kathleen Smith, Curator, Germanic Collections and Medieval Studies, Stanford University. Member-at-Large: Lindsay Hansen, Music and Media Librarian, California State University- Northridge. Women and Gender Studies Section Vice-chair/Chair-elect: Laura Bonella, Faculty and Graduate Services Librarian, Kansas State University. Secretary: Colleen Seale, Selector for Wom- en’s, Gender and LGBTQI Studies, University of Florida. Member-at-Large: Jane Nichols, Instruction and Emerging Technologies Librarian and As- sociate Professor, Oregon State University. 10. http://orcid.org/blog/2015/08/11 /contributor-recognition-update-orcid -project-credit-and-contributorship-badges. 1 1 . h t t p : / / d i c t i o n a r y . c a s r a i . o r g /Contributor_Roles. 12. https://www.mozillascience.org /contributorship-badges-for-science-view -them-now. 13. http://orcid.org/blog/2015/04/07 / o r c i d - r e c e i v e s - 3 - m i l l i o n - g r a n t - b u i l d -international-engagement-capacity. 14. http://orcid.org/blog/2015/10/26 /auto-update-has-arrived-orcid-records -move-next-level. 15. http://members.orcid.org/api/tutorial-webhooks. 1 6 . h t t p : / / f i g s h a r e . c o m / s /c6dd960c918111e59d6806ec4b8d1f61. 17. http://members.orcid.org/. 18. http://orcid.org/about/what-is-orcid /principles. 19. http://orcid.org/content/orcid-privacy -policy. 2 0 . h t t p : / / s u p p o r t . o r c i d . o r g /knowledgebase/articles/665437-the-orcid -inbox. 21. https://vimeo.com/97150912. 22. http://orcid.org/about/events. 23. https://trello.com/b/iuJwm8A6 /orcid-current-development. 24. http://orcid.org/help/contact-us. “Everything you ever wanted to know about ORCID . . .” (continues from page 26)