Work on establishing an ORCID consortium in Japan began in September 2017 with a meeting of ORCID representatives from Japanese member institutions. Although a consortium was not formed at that time, over the past two years the group has made progress toward that goal.
In April 2018, a Steering Committee was established, with members from organizations and companies that currently participate individually in ORCID. This Committee discusses issues ranging from the role and significance of the consortium in Japan to the administrative work required to operate the consortium. In June 2018, an announcement was made regarding the need for a consortium, and an ORCID document translation project was launched.
As part of our ORCID awareness-raising activities in Japan, member meetings and workshops were held here in April 2018, December 2018, and June 2019. These events ensured a better understanding of the significance of ORCID and the communities that support it among ORCID members and non-members alike.
In May 2018, following discussions and negotiations with the Steering Committee, the AXIES University ICT Promotion Council agreed to become the lead organization of the ORCID Japan Consortium. The AXIES organization was established for the purpose of joint development and purchase of educational ICT (information and communications technology) for higher education institutions. We’ve now established a ORCID steering committee in Japan, and started to work on the set up of the ORCID Japan Consortium, with the same members forming that Steering Committee. They have been holding monthly meetings online, increasing to twice monthly following the appointment of the lead organization. We are now preparing for our official launch at the start of the next fiscal year (March in Japan).
ORCID’s Executive Director, Laure Haak, welcomes this news: “The establishment of the Japan ORCID Consortium reflects the strength of the Japanese research sector’s shared commitment to improve research management. The Japan consortium is dedicated to improving data sharing and research information system interoperability, between researchers and across universities, research institutes. ORCID is honored to be part of their work. We look forward to participating in this effort with them.”
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It has been about five years since the first Japanese ORCID member joined, and there are now 19 members here. In Japan, tools such as ResearchMap, DB-Spiral, and s2id are widely used, and it is essential to link these with other ORCID systems used around the world. Work on integrating ORCID in these systems is scheduled to be completed in the next year. This will then lead to an increase in ORCID membership in Japan, enabling closer connections not only in Japan but also globally., There will also be more opportunities for the exchange of information among scientists and researchers, and between Japanese and international organizations.
Even though it took a long time to set up the Japan consortium, members in Japan are now aware that it is going to launch soon. I have prepared a contract with ORCID for the establishment of the consortium, and various ORCID events are also being planned for the coming months.
As the ORCID Japan Steering Committee Chair, I see three main elements of our consortium agreement:
- There is no cost to researchers for registering and using their ORCID iD
- Organizations can then help their researchers get credit for their work by adding information about their contributions and affiliations to their record using the member API
- Led by the consortia lead, member organizations also express their commitment to and support for ORCID’s mission and vision
One of the characteristics of the Japanese consortium is that our members include Research Administrators and Institutional Research staff, as well as CRIS and academic repository personnel. This diversity will help ensure that our consortium promotes the multifaceted spread of ORCID in Japan.
Please look out for more news about the future development of ORCID in Japan and our consortium.