In late November, I read with interest an announcement from Wiley. This publisher has begun requiring as part of their manuscript submission process, that the submitting author register for and provide his/her ORCID iD.  By now, many of our authors should be familiar with ORCID as we launched ORCID@MSK in March of this year. Our goal regarding ORCID was, and still is, to proactively support our authors by facilitating for them the process of obtaining their universal digital identifier.

In browsing the ORCID website, I was able to view other journals and publishers that have made the same move as Wiley.  Journals/publishers such as PLoS, eLife, Faculty of 1000, Rockefeller University Press, and the American Chemical Society have signed the ORCID open letter in support of the inclusion of the ORCID iD in the publishing process for their journals. Through their manuscript submission systems, publishers are in an exclusive position to encourage widespread adoption of ORCID.

While this is a move in the right direction, I can’t help but hope that all publishers will consider making it officially compulsory for all co-authors on a paper to also have their ORCID iDs included as a requirement of submission.  This identifier not only connects authors to their contributions but can also serve to ensure that individuals interested in the research always have a mechanism by which to reach the author(s). Since the ORCID iD is not attached to the researcher’s institution but to the person, it may ultimately be a more reliable way to contact an author than via the email addresses found on the published papers that, far too often, lead to dead ends.

ORCID is a nonprofit organization providing unique and persistent identifiers to all involved in research and scholarly communication activities. Our ORCID informational page can provide additional details.

If you are a MSK author and have yet to obtain your ORCID iD, you can start the process by clicking here.  If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ASK US!

Donna Gibson
Director of Library Services