What does “Source” mean in an ORCID record?

An ORCID record may contain information about a researcher’s work, affiliations, funding, peer review, and more.

Items on ORCID records can be broken down into assertions that connect the ORCID iD-holder with an activity or affiliation. These assertions can be added to an ORCID record by the researcher who owns the record, or by systems the researcher has granted permission to do so.  We call the entity that added an assertion to an ORCID record the source.

Examples

Following our principles of transparency and openness, we believe it is important to be able to see the source of the assertion — who is adding that information to the record.  Here is how we do that:

1. When a researcher (or their delegated trusted individual) adds an assertion to their record, ORCID automatically records that person as the source
2. When a system approved by the researcher adds an assertion to a record, ORCID automatically records the system owner (an ORCID member) as the source.

We display the source name in the user interface and make it available (with its unique identifier) in the API:

However, research information workflows can be more complicated than this, and the real source of an assertion can be unintentionally obscured by one system adding an item on behalf of a person or another system. To ensure transparency, we need to distinguish between who made the connection between the person and the item, and who added the item to the record.  As above, whoever adds the item to the ORCID record is the source; whoever creates the connection between the ORCID iD and the item is the assertion origin.

For example:

1. A researcher imports data into their ORCID record from a system, such as a Search and Link wizard. The researcher is making the assertion connecting their iD with the item, so they are the assertion origin; while the system is the entity adding the assertion to the ORCID record — the source
2. A researcher interacts with System A (the assertion origi), which uses services provided by System B to update ORCID records, making System B the source

We encourage our community to engage in taking steps to preserve and share information on assertion origin, so that everyone can benefit from seeing the source.

For more information, please see:

• Assertion Assurance Pathways: What Are They and Why Do They Matter?
• Plans for Enabling Multiple Assertions in the ORCID Registry