Cultivating our ORCID garden: Lessons learned from publishers

Abstract

ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID)--developed to address the problem of name ambiguity in scholarship--has been widely welcomed by many in the scholarly communications community, including many academic librarians. In fact, librarians have been some of the organization’s biggest supporters, largely because they understand how a persistent identifier like ORCID can help to solve issues that have long been a problem in information management. As a result, academic libraries have played a large role in increasing awareness of ORCID on their campuses. Activities are varied, including the development of LibGuides and other resources, hosting ORCID workshops, and even assigning/assisting authors with ORCID sign-up.

The number of publishers and funders requiring ORCID is growing, ensuring that an increasing number of authors will be exposed to the identifier. Because it is likely that, for many faculty, their first “encounter” with ORCID will occur during the scholarly publishing process, we seek to discover what ORCID resources faculty encounter and what, if any, additional information is needed.

This poster presents the results of the first phase of a project that looks at author engagement with ORCID during the publication process. We identify where within the workflow ORCID engagement typically occurs and what resources authors are provided to learn more about ORCID. In addition, we reached out to publishers requiring ORCID to learn more about what feedback they have received from authors, focusing on what additional assistance may be needed. This information can help libraries to further develop and enhance their ORCID support on campus.