Submission of suspected fake research papers has been a growing problem for some time, and shows no sign of slowing down. This growing problem undermines the integrity of the scholarly communication system and also puts enormous pressure on many stakeholders in the process, including editors of scholarly publications as well as those tasked with investigating academic misconduct at publishers, research institutions, and funders. Many efforts are currently underway across the industry to help ensure journal article submissions meet basic research integrity criteria.
While there is no one approach that is going to entirely solve the problem, ORCID believes that the validated information in ORCID records about the author has an important role to play.
ORCID allows our member organizations, including universities, funders, and publishers, to add authoritative data to researchers’ ORCID records (with their permission), such as their affiliations, funding awards, research outputs and peer reviews. We call these pieces of validated information “trust markers” and believe they can demonstrate the scholarly bona-fides of authors and help verify their scholarly identity.
While we carefully record the provenance of each item in an ORCID record, i.e. who made the assertion and when, it can be quite time-consuming for editors to hunt through this information to discover and assess the relevance of each piece of data to their integrity checks. So we have developed record summaries to help.
ORCID Summary API
ORCID has functionality that helps users reviewing ORCID records as part of their research workflow to easily read a summarized version of the information contained within the record. This functionality is available within the public record and for integrators behind our member API.
Member integrators can use our endpoint /summary to read the validated information from researchers ORCID records. As the summary only includes public information there is no requirement for the researcher to provide permission to read the summary information. Please refer to our tutorial ‘Read data on a record’ on how to obtain a /read-public access token. The summary data can be returned in XML or JSON.
Below is the data returned for ORCID record https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5727-2427
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<summary:record-summary xmlns:summary="http://www.orcid.org/ns/summary" xmlns:common="http://www.orcid.org/ns/common" xmlns:activities="http://www.orcid.org/ns/activities">
<common:created-date>2013-10-03T00:06:06.151Z</common:created-date>
<common:last-modified-date>2024-09-13T15:26:07.740Z</common:last-modified-date>
<summary:credit-name>Sofia Maria Hernandez Garcia</summary:credit-name>
<common:orcid-identifier>
<common:uri>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5727-2427</common:uri>
<common:path>0000-0001-5727-2427</common:path>
<common:host>orcid.org</common:host>
</common:orcid-identifier>
<summary:external-identifiers>
<summary:external-identifier>
<summary:put-code>226925</summary:put-code>
<summary:external-id-type>Profile system identifier</summary:external-id-type>
<summary:external-id-value>A-123456</summary:external-id-value>
<summary:external-id-url>http://A-123456</summary:external-id-url>
<summary:validated>true</summary:validated>
</summary:external-identifier>
<summary:external-identifier>
<summary:put-code>1056088</summary:put-code>
<summary:external-id-type>ResearcherID</summary:external-id-type>
<summary:external-id-value>L-8716-2018</summary:external-id-value>
<summary:external-id-url>http://www.researcherid.com/rid/L-8716-2018</summary:external-id-url>
<summary:validated>false</summary:validated>
</summary:external-identifier>
<summary:external-identifier>
<summary:put-code>1056119</summary:put-code>
<summary:external-id-type>eScientist</summary:external-id-type>
<summary:external-id-value>0000-0001-5727-2427</summary:external-id-value>
<summary:external-id-url>https://www.escientist.cn/0000-0001-5727-2427</summary:external-id-url>
<summary:validated>true</summary:validated>
</summary:external-identifier>
</summary:external-identifiers>
<summary:employments>
<summary:count>2</summary:count>
<summary:employment>
<summary:put-code>3176627</summary:put-code>
<summary:type>employment</summary:type>
<summary:organization-name>New Arizona State University</summary:organization-name>
<summary:role>Associate Professor</summary:role>
<common:start-date>
<common:year>2015</common:year>
<common:month>09</common:month>
</common:start-date>
<summary:validated>false</summary:validated>
</summary:employment>
<summary:employment>
<summary:put-code>18574414</summary:put-code>
<summary:type>employment</summary:type>
<summary:organization-name>ORCID</summary:organization-name>
<summary:role>Engagement Lead</summary:role>
<common:start-date>
<common:year>2014</common:year>
<common:month>05</common:month>
<common:day>14</common:day>
</common:start-date>
<common:end-date>
<common:year>2019</common:year>
<common:month>09</common:month>
<common:day>25</common:day>
</common:end-date>
<summary:validated>true</summary:validated>
</summary:employment>
</summary:employments>
<summary:professional-activities>
<summary:count>5</summary:count>
<summary:professional-activity>
<summary:put-code>8745410</summary:put-code>
<summary:type>membership</summary:type>
<summary:organization-name>Association of Personal & Research Idenifiers </summary:organization-name>
<common:start-date>
<common:year>2017</common:year>
</common:start-date>
<summary:validated>false</summary:validated>
</summary:professional-activity>
<summary:professional-activity>
<summary:put-code>13078591</summary:put-code>
<summary:type>service</summary:type>
<summary:organization-name>ORCID</summary:organization-name>
<summary:role>Honorary ORCID Director (Systems)</summary:role>
<summary:url>https://orcid.org</summary:url>
<common:start-date>
<common:year>2014</common:year>
</common:start-date>
<common:end-date>
<common:year>2016</common:year>
</common:end-date>
<summary:validated>true</summary:validated>
</summary:professional-activity>
<summary:professional-activity>
<summary:put-code>8745444</summary:put-code>
<summary:type>invited-position</summary:type>
<summary:organization-name>École Polytechnique Bordeaux</summary:organization-name>
<summary:role>Professeure</summary:role>
<common:start-date>
<common:year>2013</common:year>
</common:start-date>
<common:end-date>
<common:year>2015</common:year>
</common:end-date>
<summary:validated>false</summary:validated>
</summary:professional-activity>
</summary:professional-activities>
<summary:fundings>
<summary:self-asserted-count>1</summary:self-asserted-count>
<summary:validated-count>0</summary:validated-count>
</summary:fundings>
<summary:works>
<summary:self-asserted-count>4</summary:self-asserted-count>
<summary:validated-count>3</summary:validated-count>
</summary:works>
<summary:peer-reviews>
<summary:peer-review-publication-grants>2</summary:peer-review-publication-grants>
<summary:self-asserted-count>0</summary:self-asserted-count>
<summary:total>2</summary:total>
</summary:peer-reviews>
<summary:email-domains>
<summary:count>1</summary:count>
<summary:email-domain>
<summary:value>orcid.org</summary:value>
</summary:email-domain>
</summary:email-domains>
<summary:education-qualifications>
<summary:count>4</summary:count>
<summary:education-qualification>
<summary:put-code>8745545</summary:put-code>
<summary:type>qualification</summary:type>
<summary:organization-name>London School of Physics</summary:organization-name>
<summary:role>PhD</summary:role>
<common:start-date>
<common:year>2016</common:year>
</common:start-date>
<common:end-date>
<common:year>2018</common:year>
</common:end-date>
<summary:validated>false</summary:validated>
</summary:education-qualification>
<summary:education-qualification>
<summary:put-code>4944677</summary:put-code>
<summary:type>education</summary:type>
<summary:organization-name>Universidad Politécnica de Madrid</summary:organization-name>
<summary:role>BA Computer Science</summary:role>
<common:start-date>
<common:year>2008</common:year>
<common:month>09</common:month>
</common:start-date>
<common:end-date>
<common:year>2012</common:year>
<common:month>05</common:month>
</common:end-date>
<summary:validated>false</summary:validated>
</summary:education-qualification>
<summary:education-qualification>
<summary:put-code>8745518</summary:put-code>
<summary:type>qualification</summary:type>
<summary:organization-name>University of Kingston</summary:organization-name>
<summary:role>UX Design Certificate</summary:role>
<common:start-date>
<common:year>2010</common:year>
</common:start-date>
<common:end-date>
<common:year>2012</common:year>
</common:end-date>
<summary:validated>false</summary:validated>
</summary:education-qualification>
</summary:education-qualifications>
<summary:research-resources>
<summary:self-asserted-count>0</summary:self-asserted-count>
<summary:validated-count>2</summary:validated-count>
</summary:research-resources>
</summary:record-summary>Public display of summaries
The summary information is also visible within the user’s public ORCID record. This can easily be seen by clicking the ‘Show record summary’ which is within the ORCID record header. Below is an example for the same record, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5727-2427
We count validated and self-asserted items separately. Validated items are those added by a trusted ORCID member organization (e.g. a publisher, funder or research institution). Self-asserted items are those that have been manually added to the record by the record owner.
ORCID doesn’t make value judgements about the data contained within records, nor is it our role to do so. However, we believe that it is our responsibility as a scholarly infrastructure provider and trusted hub of information about researchers to make the data that we hold available to the community as widely as possible, and in as clear a format as possible, so that consumers of ORCID data can make their own judgments.
We believe ORCID record summaries will be very useful in quickly summarizing the previous track record of established researchers. Note that an “empty” summary should not be taken as a sign of a problematic submission, but rather as a signal that the publisher may need to take additional steps in order to “know their author” and be comfortable that the submission is legitimate. ORCID record summaries are simply intended to make it easier to use the information already in ORCID records when reviewing submissions, and we expect it to become one tool among many that are employed by publishers in coming years to restore confidence in the integrity of the scholarly record.
What data does the summary contain?
The information shown within the summary depends on the public data available within the users ORCID record. Private or trusted information will not be shown or included in the summary counts. The following items may be displayed:
| Item | Description |
| Name or published/credit name | If the record has a published/credit name then this will be displayed, otherwise the given and family names will be shown. |
| ORCID iD | The ORCID iD |
| Affiliations | This section displays the first three employment items only. Organization name with a link to the affiliation urlRole/titleStart and end dates |
| Email Domains | This section displays the verified professional email domains that are publicly available on the users ORCID record plus the email verification date if verified after 28th October 2024 |
| Works | A count of validated works and self asserted works |
| Funding | A count of validated funding and self asserted funding items |
| Peer Review | A count of validated peer review items. (note that this will only show a count of validated items as users are not able to manually add peer review to their records) |
| Research Resources | A count of validated research resources items. (note that this will only show a count of validated items as users are not able to manually add research resources to their records) |
| Professional Activities | This section displays the three most recent Membership, Service, Invited Positions and Distinction items. |
| Education and Qualifications | This section displays the three most recent Education and Qualification items. |
| Other Identifiers | This section displays the other identifiers that have been connected with the user’s ORCID iD. For example, Scopus Author ID, ISNI or ResearcherID |
| Status | The status will include ‘Active’, ‘Locked’, ‘Deprecated’ or ‘Deactivated’ |
| Key Dates | The date the record was created and the date the record was last updated |
If you are interested in integrating ORCID record summaries into your system then please contact your Engagement Lead.
Technical Information can be found at: https://github.com/ORCID/orcid-model/tree/master/src/main/resources/record_3.0