The fall 2013 ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) Outreach meeting took place on October 30 in Washington, DC at the headquarters of the American Geophysical Union. I was one of over 100+ interested attendees, all keen on learning more about ORCID’s progress and best practices for the integration of ORCID IDs into research workflows.
The meeting opened with updates on ORCID registrations and memberships, those focused on integrating ORCID IDs at their institutions, and technical plans. There were also multiple opportunities to interact with ORCID staff as well as attendees. The morning panel offered a lively discussion about the integration of ORCID identifiers by publishers, research funders, and professional societies but what captured my attention the most was the afternoon working session on ORCID identifiers in publishing workflows. It was clear that there was a commitment from many of the publishers in the room to support ORCID as a service to their authors.
When contemplating new Library services, I often ask myself the question, “What’s in it for them?” – by them, I mean our user community. For me, there has to be a clear benefit or benefits, otherwise there really is no reason to pursue. Establishing an ORCID support service will facilitate obtaining persistent identifiers. Each one a 16-digit number, expressed as a URL unique to each MSK researcher and will help to eliminate author name ambiguity and improve discoverability to one’s research and scholarly works.
As previously mentioned in a past blog (October 7, 2013), the MSKCC Library is developing a new service, scheduled to launch in 1Q2014 where we will work with our author community to obtain their ORCID IDs for them. We are also exploring how we can populate their ORCID pages with their publications and help them keep their profiles up-to-date.
If I have peaked your interest, feel free to check out some of the presentations (morning sessions’ slides), recordings, and of course event photos that ORCID posted. You can access this content online. For curious MSK authors — please don’t hesitate to reach out to learn more about the Library’s plan to support scholarly communication.
Donna Gibson
ORCID ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3333-6742
Director of Library Services and one of many ORCID Ambassadors