Open Researcher and Contributor ID (or ORCIDs) 
are unique identifiers for researchers that can be used to identify research outputs across platforms to a particular researcher.
ORCIDs are a good idea because:
- They distinguish between researchers with the same or similar names.
- It saves time – entering your ORCID will auto-populate personal details when completing online forms on compatibile systems.
- ORCIDs are community driven and non-proprietary.
- ORCIDs allow different platforms to talk to each other. Signing up for an ORCID will allow the push and pull of data from one system to another e.g. from ORO to arXiv.
Nearly 2 million researchers already have signed up for ORCIDs and they are free. You can register on the ORCiD site here.
ORCIDs are increasingly important:
- The Metric Tide Report recommends their use potentially for the next REF.
- Publishers (e.g. RSC, AGU, IEEE and PLOS) are beginning to require authors to have an ORCiD at point of submission.
- Funders are beginning to require ORCIDs (e.g. The Wellcome Trust) in grant applications.
This year Library Services and Research and Academic Strategy will support OU researchers by linking their institutional identifier (OUCU) with their ORCID identifier. This will allow the transfer of data from ORO (in the first instance) to external systems via the ORCID registry. So updates to data in any system will update in linked systems – ORCIDs are the key links between systems.
We will be out and about in 2016 promoting the use of ORCIDs at the OU and doing the work to exploit the full potential of ORCIDs for OU researchers. Contact us for more details or if you would be interested in piloting the use of ORCIDs in your department.
Chris, I’ve been thinking about exporting ORO information to ORCID and noted your post (above). I see that on the ORCID site under ‘Add works’ one of the choices it gives is ‘Link your works from another system. This it the recommended process’. (http://support.orcid.org/knowledgebase/articles/462032-add-works-website-user). When I went into the Link Works pages it says ‘ORCID has created partnerships with our members to allow users to import publications into their ORCID record from outside databases. The linking process can begin either on the ORCID site via our Search and link tools, or at the member’s website. Before works can be added to your ORCID record, you must first grant access to the member organization’s integration.’
As far as I can see the OU is not currently a member; is it intended that we will become a member and, if so, do we have any idea when this will be? Otherwise, do I have to export to ORCID via a text file? I see that you say ‘We will be out and about in 2016 promoting the use of ORCIDs at the OU’; have you produced any guidance yet, or perhaps this is something that will be coming out in the next few months?
Many thanks, Marion.
Thanks Marion, we are just about to start development work on ORO so that works can be exported from ORO to ORCID and vice versa.
In the meantime, the easiest way to export items from ORO to ORCID is by exporting your ORO items in a BibTex file and importing them into ORCID.
Instructions can be found on the ORCID website here: http://support.orcid.org/knowledgebase/articles/390530-import-works-from-bibtex-files-website-user
The best way to get a BibTex file of all your ORO items is to go to Browse>OU Author, and then on your list of publications “click export as BibTex”.