ORCID is pleased to announce that Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Oxford University Press (OUP), Royal Society of Chemistry, and Sage Publishing have each re-committed to their support of ORCID by forgiving all or part of the loans they made to ORCID during our start-up period from 2011–13. Their generous contributions increase the available funding for ORCID’s Global Participation Fund (GPF), which provides grants to build ORCID Communities of Practice in currently under-represented regions and for improving ORCID integrations in open-source scholarly platforms. Along with the support of the original launch partners of our Global Participation Program (GPP), the total funding raised for the GPF now stands at just short of US$1.5M.
“We are grateful for the kind support of IEEE, OUP, RSC, and Sage in helping us address current imbalances in ORCID adoption around the world,” said ORCID’s Executive Director, Chris Shillum. “In the two years since ORCID launched the GPF, we have awarded over $350K in funding to 20 organizations across the Global South, and to teams that build open-source platforms that are heavily used in those regions. We are thrilled to be able to increase the funding available to continue these grant programs, furthering our ability to bridge the ORCID participation gap and improve equity of access to interconnected research infrastructure in currently under-represented regions.”
With these additional contributions, we are also happy to share that ORCID’s obligations for repayment of our original startup loans are now complete, enhancing our financial stability and increasing confidence in our long-term sustainability.
Andy Heard, IEEE’s Sr. Director of Publishing Technology said ORCID is an essential part of IEEE’s reputation as an ethical publisher. IEEE is the largest technical professional organization in the world that is dedicated to advancing technology for human benefit. It publishes highly cited journals, hosts conferences, issues technology standards, and fosters professional and educational development.
“Having confidence that a person is who they say they are is essential to ensuring integrity within the publishing ecosystem,” said Heard. “As an ethical publisher, IEEE relies on tools such as ORCID to establish trust in researcher identity.”
Another ORCID supporter is, Oxford University Press (OUP), the publishing house of the University of Oxford, boasts being the largest university press in the world as well as the second-oldest. James Phillpotts, Director of OUPs’ Content Transformation & Standards, notes that OUP believes in publishing with a purpose to ensure availability of the highest quality academic and educational resources and services across the world.
“There is a clear synergy with the goal of ORCID’s Global Participation Program, to improve equity of access to interconnected research infrastructure, enabling transparent and trustworthy connections between researchers, their contributions, and their affiliations,” he said. “In supporting this Program, the Press hopes to help address the priorities of research communities in lower/middle-income countries and to improve equity and visibility for the high quality academic contributions of their researchers.”
Sage Publishing, an American independent academic publishing company, founded in 1965 publishes more than a thousand journals per year. “Investing in ORCID and its Global Participation Program is investing in both the publishing infrastructure and the global publishing community—especially in researchers who are underrepresented in that community,” said Andrew Smeall, Vice President of Product Innovation at Sage. “ORCID adoption reduces the administrative burden for authors and helps them gain recognition for their work— all while easing research integrity practices for publishers and editors. As a publisher that cares deeply about global representation, participation, and trust in science, Sage is very happy to further support this program.”
Visit the ORCID Global Participation Program page to learn more about the GPF grants given biannually and the partners who helped launch the program by forgiving ORCID’s startup loans.
