ORCID in books: Today and tomorrow

The community wants to know how best to implement ORCID iDs in book publishing workflows, so in 2016 we convened representatives from service providers and publishers small and large and formed a community working group on the topic. ORCID contributed project management support and engaged a consultant, who carried out a survey of around 100 organizations, interviewed representatives from the books community, and wrote up the findings in a summary report.

The report is based on interviews with 39 representatives from 26 organizations globally, including publishers, service providers, standards organizations, libraries, and funders. The main finding: while book publishers recognize the benefit of ORCID in distinguishing authors, simplifying sign-in, and identifying potential reviewers, there is almost no implementation of ORCID in book publishing workflows, and a seeming lack of pressure from authors to do so.

Based on these findings, the working group turned its attention to developing concrete recommendations for us to encourage ORCID implementation for books. These include both technical and communications steps to support the adoption of ORCID in book publishing workflows and ensure that authors and editors understand the benefits.

Books workflows recommendations for ORCID

• Work with publishers that publish large volumes of conference proceedings, book series, or large reference works, especially those who publish both books and journals.
• Implementation should target the points in the book workflow where there is the most direct author and editor contact and the most perceived benefit: acquisitions, proofing, marketing.
• Create a boilerplate white-label document making the case for ORCID that a society or publisher could adapt and incorporate in their own systems.
• Publicize successes of publishers who incorporate ORCID into book workflows.
• Engage with title management systems.
• Work with societies in fields where conference proceedings are of prime importance.
• Work with organizations such as MLA, the OCLC, ISNI, the British Library, the National Library of the Netherlands, and JSTOR to explore interoperability, back lists (connecting iDs to books and books chapters that have already been published), and more.

We will be working on these recommendations in the coming months, as well as documenting processes to include ORCID in books workflows that societies or publishers can adapt to incorporate into their own systems. We warmly invite organizations that are using, or are planning to use, ORCID in their book publishing workflows or applications to contact us for more information. This includes small publishers of scholarly volumes, as well as larger books publishers and vendor systems.

Many thanks to our participants

We extend our appreciation and acknowledge the contributions of the 15 volunteer members of the working group (listed below), as well as the 85 respondents to the general survey, and the 39 interviewees for the ORCID in books workflows report.

• Tony Alves, Aries Systems (USA)
• Margo Bargheer, University of Goettingen (Germany)
• David Cox, Taylor & Francis (UK)
• Ben Denne, Taylor & Francis (UK)
• Tim Devenport, Editeur (UK)
• Justin Gonder, University of California – Office of the President (USA)
• Christina Hoppermann, Springer Nature (Germany) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8858-7536
• Marjon Jekel, Brill (Netherlands) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7785-6283
• Andrew Joseph, Wits University Press (South Africa)
• Bill Kasdorf, Apex CoVantage (USA) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7002-4786
• Jasmin Lange, Brill (Netherlands)
• Emily Marchant, Cambridge University Press (UK)
• Pierre Mounier, OpenEdition, OPERAS (France)
• Martijn Roelandse, Springer Nature (Netherlands)
• Terence Smyre, University of Minnesota Press (USA) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7094-8102