Outreach Resources

Communicating to your users throughout your ORCID integration development project is just as important as the development of the integration itself. Researchers need to be informed about:

what ORCID is,
how it will benefit them,
how to set up their records (if they haven’t already),
why you will be requesting access to their ORCID record, and
what you will do with their data.

We have a wealth of technical documentation to help you with your ORCID integration, and on this page you will find a number of resources to build awareness of ORCID within your organization and to communicate the value of your upcoming integration–-and the value of having an ORCID record–to your researchers. From communications planning ideas to content marketing collateral, we support your integration with a vast repository of tried and tested information as well as reusable graphics.

The graphic and copy assets we provide can be used for your integrations, ORCID web pages on your organization’s site, email campaigns, etc. All materials are CC0-licensed and may be re-used and customized as required.

One of our main areas of focus for 2022 will be to update and expand our current offering of outreach resources, and we’d like to hear what would be useful to you. If you would like to discuss your plans for a communications campaign, or an event you are arranging, please contact your Engagement team lead, or submit a help request.

How to communicate your new integration

It’s helpful to think about and plan your integration campaign in three steps:

Step 1: Build anticipation
Step 2: Engage with ORCID
Step 3: Reiterate key messages about ORCID’s value

Step 1: Build anticipation

Goal: Provide initial ORCID education for researchers and let them know action will be required of them soon.

Start with a clear agreement within your organization about which integrations are available to your researchers and how you want researchers to interact with them. For example, if you are a university library and you are collecting your researchers’ affiliations, please encourage your researchers to:

Create an ORCID iD if they have not already done so,
Connect their ORCID iD to your institution and grant it permission to access their record as a trusted organization, and
Receive a validated assertion of their current affiliation with your institution on their ORCID record.

We are in the process of developing a series of explainer videos you can share with your users. Use a combination of methods to bring ORCID to researchers’ attention, convey basic information about ORCID, and let researchers know they will soon be expected to create or connect their ORCID iD to your institution.

Start with gathering some information. Want to know who’s using ORCID iDs at your institution? This will give you some sample API searches you can use to find out who has asserted on their record that they are affiliated with your institution. You can also access a form that will enable you to learn how many records are associated with your institution’s email domain(s).

Ideas for building anticipation

Informational bulletin in staff news and research services newsletters
Blog post
Webpage content to add to webpages or LibGuides
Distribution of ORCID-branded swag, especially to department chairs and other leaders

Step 2: Engage with ORCID

Goal: Encourage researchers to create or connect their ORCID iD to your institution and give permission for your institution to be a trusted organization.

You have raised awareness of ORCID and its benefits among your researchers, and this is the action phase where you want them to perform a certain task, such as registering or signing in to ORCID and making your institution a trusted organization. In this phase of the campaign, your messages and events give researchers a call to action and help them act on this call.

Ideas for engaging with ORCID

Email to researchers
Faculty drop-in events
Tie-in with on-campus events, such as Back to School, OA Week, etc.
Introduce an element of competition by keeping a leaderboard of participation by department or organize a prize draw (with ORCID-branded merchandise as prizes!)

Step 3: Reiterate key messages about ORCID’s value to your researchers

Goal: Educate researchers so they know when to expect to use their ORCID account, they understand how to recognize ORCID branding, and they are able explain how re-use of their ORCID iD benefits them.

Now that your researchers have registered for ORCID and connected with your institution, researchers can re-use their ORCID account with other research systems, giving permission for their data to be accessed and updated in order to achieve the time-saving and trust-building benefits of ORCID.

The best times to run key messaging campaigns about the value of ORCID are in the run-up to deadlines for publications and grant applications and during periods when researchers are more likely to be engaging in other scholarly communications campaigns and events, such as Open Access Week, Peer Review Week, and professional development activities at your institution.

Use promotional materials and messages to:

Raise researchers’ awareness and recognition of the green ORCID iD icon,
Remind them to sign into their ORCID account when they see the iD icon, and
Remind them of the benefits of using and developing their ORCID account, including granting permission to trusted organizations to access and update their records (i.e., the benefits of correct attribution and increased recognition for all their research activities and the automatic updating of information when they give permission for this to happen).

Ideas for reiterating key messages

E-poster deployed as a desktop background or screensaver
Institution-wide encouragement of ORCID iDs in email signatures
Presentation/workshop
Mention ORCID in blog posts about applying for funding
Mention ORCID during scholarly communications events and presentations
Distribution of ORCID-branded swag and free downloadable materials at scholarly communications events and presentations

Assets to support ORCID adoption in your organization

All materials we offer to assist you with your ORCID campaigns are CC0-licensed and may be re-used and customized as required. However, in order to ensure your integrations are properly branded and recognizable, consistency in the use of the ORCID logo, icon, and key messaging is necessary, so we ask that you adhere to ORCID Brand Guidelines.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss your plans for a communications campaign or an event you are arranging, please contact us.

We are planning to update many of these in 2022, but here are a few resources to help support ORCID adoption campaigns in your organization:

ORCID’s Value Stories can help improve understanding and engagement as you embark on your adoption campaign and can even help facilitate better communication among your colleagues. They are intended to form the basis of messaging that you can use on your website, your own outreach resources, and your social media campaigns. (Please note that at this time you will need to request view access to the Value Stories. This is a simple process and we respond quickly.)
Our new ORCID + Researchers page with easy to understand information on what value an ORCID brings to researchers, how to register for an ORCID, how to optimize it, and how to get help.
A Quick Tour of the ORCID Record is a three-minute video that introduces Sofia Maria Hernandez Garcia and her co-author, Li Wei as they submit a journal article and update their ORCID records.
Historical ORCID videos, including What is ORCID? and Why ORCID? (will be updated).
As part of our new ORCID Events program, in 2022 we will be launching a series of webinars just for researchers called “iD & Me.” These are events that designed to teach the basics of how to register for, use, and maintain an ORCID record. These webinars will be recorded and available on-demand in our public video library (Vimeo and/or YouTube), so the content can easily be referenced. For now, we have this interactive presentation that includes information about ORCID, short quizzes, and workshop activities (will be updated).
Our infographic on The Value of Persistent Identifiers for Researchers is a handy way to get the ORCID message across to decision-makers in your organization (will be updated).
During your action phase, think about adding an ORCID graphic to content, including email, web page, information bulletin, or blog post (will be updated).
Use these e-posters—All about ORCID (two versions) and Building engaged ORCID communities—as a poster, desktop background, or screensaver (will be updated).
Knowledge Base user support articles to help with technical issues.