[revised 31 October 2017]
Organization identifiers are a key part of the scholarly communications infrastructure. At the beginning of this year Crossref, DataCite and ORCID announced the formation of an Organization Identifier Working Group to refine the structure, principles, and technology specifications for an open, independent, non-profit organization identifier Registry to facilitate the disambiguation of researcher affiliations.
The group worked in three interdependent areas: Governance, Registry Product Definition, and Business Model, and recently released for public comment its findings and recommendations for governance and product requirements. The main recommendations are (1) an open, independent organization identifier Registry with capabilities for organizations to manage their own record, (2) seeded with and using open data, (3) an independent governance structure, and (4) a start-up phase inside a non-profit host organization providing technical development, operations and other support.
The working group has issued a Request for Information (RFI) to solicit comment and interest from the broader research community in developing the Registry. Are you interested in serving as a the start-up host organization? Do you have organization data you are willing to contribute? Is your organization interested in participating in governance of the Registry? Do you have other resources that could be helpful for the project? Do you have advice, suggestions, and feedback on creating a sustainable business model for each phase of the Registry’s development? We’d like to hear from you!
While framing your responses, please see the Governance and Product documents for requirements and principles.
NOTE added 31 October: The deadline for responses has been extended to 1 December. Please see the RFI Q&A for more information, including a template to use for your response.