WIth over 4.5m users, 850 members, and over 550 member integrations, ORCID is clearly valued by our community. But how can we actually measure that value? Are researchers experiencing automated record updates and form-filling? Are our member organizations able to leverage ORCID iDs to better trace the impact of the research they support?
Our Collecting the Evidence project – part of our 2018 roadmap – is intended to help us answer these questions and more.
There are a number of existing ORCID reports and analyses that we already know about, including several carried out by our consortia. For example, this Jisc study estimated that comprehensive adoption of open identifiers (ORCID iDs for people, DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) for articles and data, and soon grant awards too) could provide enough reliable information to save a large research institution 1,000 staff hours every year. And Portuguese funder FCT has created a simulator that enables you to calculate how much time and money could be saved if ORCID’s mantra of “enter once, reuse often” can be realized.
We also get lots of great feedback from users on Twitter, which we will be tracking this year using sentiment analysis. Not to mention in-person feedback from users, members, our Board, and others, which we are also now collecting more formally.
Now we need your help! Please let us know if you’ve carried out an analysis of the impact of ORCID in your community – or if you’re thinking of doing so. If you have direct experience of ORCID making your life easier (or harder!). Or if you have any other feedback on the value of ORCID for you, your organization, or your community.
We’ve set up a public Dropbox folder and invite you to contribute to it. You can also contact us directly at community@orcid.org. We will be updating you regularly on our progress and sharing the evidence we’ve collected at the end of the year.
Thank you!
