Hindawi and ORCID have worked together for a number of years, starting in 2012 when Hindawi began our first ORCID trial in an attempt to encourage authors to register for an ORCID ID. At this point, the responses to ORCID were mixed, as our authors weren’t familiar with ORCID, which had only recently launched. Some researchers were reluctant to register, some were unsure as to what ORCID was and how it was used – others simply encountered technical difficulties. Hindawi therefore made the decision to keep the ORCID ID field on a user’s account as optional, but to support and display the ID on an article when an author chose to provide one.
Earlier this year, Hindawi signed the publishers’ open letter and announced another trial. This time the corresponding author of all papers would be required to have an ORCID ID to publish their article with Hindawi. We use our own peer and production system so were able to decide at which point of the process development would be completed to obtain the corresponding authors ORCID ID. During the peer review and production processes, there are multiple points where an ORCID ID can be collected from the author and where an ORCID ID can be required if wished. Each route has pros and cons. For Hindawi, we decided to encourage all authors to add their ORCID ID during the submission and peer review process, but only require it for the corresponding author if the paper was accepted.
This decision ensures that an author can still submit a paper with ease and that they are not chased to provide an ORCID ID when their article may be rejected. And collecting the ID using the OAuth process ensures that the author has validated it on the ORCID website.
Since launching these trials in March 2016, we have found that a large portion of authors already have ORCID IDs associated with their Hindawi accounts and many more have added their ORCID ID during the peer review process when encouraged to do so. This uptake means there is minimal manual chasing for ORCID IDs on acceptance and that an author’s article can continue uninterrupted into the production and publication processes.
At publication, Hindawi automatically delivers the ORCID IDs to CrossRef as part of the standard metadata deposit. This enables Crossref to automatically update the author’s ORCID record with the article DOI on publication – saving time, reducing the risk of error, and building trust in the connections between the iD holder and her/his works. In addition, the Hindawi website hyperlinks the author’s name which, when clicked, displays a list of the published content linked to their ORCID account.
Collectively, these steps mean that Hindawi is meeting all the commitments of the publishers’ open letter.
And Hindawi is committed to further close cooperation with ORCID in future, including depositing information about peer review activities to a user’s ORCID account (with user permission) and providing single sign-in functionality on our submission site.
