To help you build the best possible integration for your organization, your awardees, and the wider community, we have created these best practice guidelines to ensure the collection of authenticated ORCID IDs in funding workflows is efficient and automated. Following these guidelines will ensure funding agencies and researchers get the most from ORCID.
- Authenticate. Collect authenticated ORCID iDs for your applicants (i.e., iDs obtained via the ORCID API) and permissions to read, write, and update their record. Do not ask researchers to type in or search for their ORCID iD.
- Display. Embed your awardees’ ORCID iDs into grant data, and display the ORCID iD icon next to the name of each researcher who has connected their iD.
- Connect. Update researcher’ ORCID records connecting information to ORCID records for trusted sharing with others. Your organization is displayed as the source of this information.
- Collect. Request and use permission from awardees to pull information from their ORCID record to auto-populate application forms.
- Synchronize. You exchange information to AND from ORCID records and your system over time, so that the two are fully synchronized.
- Take your integration further. You use ORCID to recognize your awardees’ peer review service.
Find out more about why and how to:
Authenticated iDs during funding application submission
Why?
Use our API to authenticate ORCID iDs from your users as they are applying for funding. This ensures that you have the right iD for each researcher. At the same time, you can request their permission to read, write, or update the information in their ORCID record – a necessary first step in making connections to the people you fund and sharing structured data about your funding programs. Authenticating iDs for all the members of a research team or project ensures that the greatest possible benefits are delivered to researchers, funders and institutions.
How?
Authenticating ORCID iDs and requesting permission to read from/write to ORCID records involves (a) prompting applicants to sign into ORCID from within your system and (b) retrieving data from the ORCID Registry using the ORCID API. You should use the API to enable information flow, to ensure that applicants are associated with the iD they provide, and so that you can request permission to update their ORCID record when the grant is awarded. Applicants should not be asked to manually copy and paste an iD into a free text field or search for their name in the ORCID Registry. Include an ORCID-branded button or link on your site to initiate collection of the iD, following ORCID’s display guidelines.
Display publicly and embed authenticated ORCID iDs into award information
Why?
Publicly and clearly show your awardees and the community how and why you are using authenticated iDs. Store ORCID iDs in your grant database so you can connect researchers in your own systems, display publicly iDs in published grant information to signal to the community your use of iDs, and enable search by iD in your public databases to improve search and discovery.
How?
ORCID welcomes and encourages community use of authenticated ORCID iDs. Our goal is to make ORCID iDs readable and useful (see display guidelines). They should be easy to find and logically placed. Please ensure that each ORCID identifier is displayed with the appropriate applicant
Find out more about our display guidelines and download image files and other resources.
Connect information about grant awards to the ORCID Registry
Why?
Publicly posting award information improves transparency and enables researchers to share it easily as they interact with other funders and publishers.
How?
Ensure you request read/write/update permission when you collect a researcher’s ORCID iD – then you can use the API to update their ORCID record when their grant is awarded. You decide how your organization name is listed, what organization identifier to use, and include the persistent and resolvable grant ID from your database. Your organization will be listed as the information source, and you can update the information should it change (such as, if the grant term is extended).
Collect information from ORCID records to fill forms and support research reporting
Why?
Your grant management system has a number of standard fields that can be populated using information from a researcher’s ORCID record, saving data entry time and improving data quality and robustness.
How?
Request permission to read/write/update their ORCID record at the same time that you authenticate the researcher’s ORCID iD. You can then use the ORCID API to access information such as employment and education affiliations; publications, datasets and other works; biographical, funding, and peer review information.
Synchronize the information flow between your system and ORCID
Why?
Using the ORCID API to exchange information between your system and ORCID records allows up-to-date and accurate information to flow between your systems and other systems your applicants use. This provides the greatest benefit for your researchers, your organization, and the broader scholarly community – it enables researchers to spend more of their time making contributions and less time managing information about them; it makes information about your grants and supported researchers more accessible to the community; and it makes it possible to map funding, research, and researchers across time and place.
How?
Implement both the connect AND collect options to push and pull information to and from ORCID records.
Take your integration further
Give reviewers credit:
Reviewers are vital to research; their expertise enables your organization to make informed funding decisions. Authenticate the ORCID iDs of your reviewers. When the review is completed, update the researcher’s ORCID record — you can choose how much review information to include (very little, for example, in the case of blind review). Recognizing a reviewer’s service brings their contributions to the discipline into the open, alongside their funding, their publications, and their employment. As more funders recognise reviewer contributions, each funder will have better information on the expertise of reviewers.
Use ORCID records to automate grant reporting:
Journals and major disciplinary repositories collect ORCID iDs for researchers. In many cases they request researchers include funding information in their submissions. Posting funding information into your researchers’ ORCID records means this information can be easily shared with the publisher or repository – reducing data entry burden for the researcher and ensuring the funding information mirrors what is in your records. Further, it then becomes easier for your organization to use ORCID iDs to automate aspects of research outputs reporting, allowing near real-time reports on publications and data sets — and your researchers can focus their reporting on narratives describing their research.
NEW! Now available in our new API 3.0 — currently available in beta — an expanded set of affiliation options (Qualifications, Invited positions and distinctions, and Membership and service) and a new Research Resources section (for information about specialist resource use, such as access to a national laboratory, a museum or gallery, or a digital collection). Technical documentation can be found on our GitHub repository and will also be updated regularly during development.