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CSP Criteria: Manuscript Submission Systems

ORCID encourages all providers of scholarly service to integrate with our Registry AND to become an official ORCID Certified Service Provider (CSP). Certification is a free service for scholarly service providers to increase the visibility and trustworthiness of services and products.

Benefits of Certification

Manuscript Submission Systems

This document outlines ways in which a typical Manuscript Submission System must integrate with the ORCID API in order to become an ORCID Certified Service Provider, walking through the processes of receiving authenticated ORCID iDs from authors and reviewers, retrieving data from ORCID records, adding works to ORCID records, updating works which they have previously added to ORCID records, crediting reviewers and recognizing editors. 

Notes

  • Not every process will apply to every manuscript submission system, so not every criteria will need to be met for certification, however systems that do support a given process must meet the criteria in order to be certified. 
  • These criteria are based on extensive analysis conducted on industry best practices for workflows used by various scholarly service provider systems,  followed by public review and input from the ORCID community. In order to obtain the best possible value from an ORCID integration it is recommended that all applicable criteria are met, not just the ones that must be met for certification.
  • These criteria apply to the capabilities that are offered by the Service Provider’s platform. It is understood that not all capabilities outlined will be activated by each organization deploying the repository platform depending on their specific needs.
  • In this document, the terms “must”, “should” and “may” follow the definitions specified in RFC 2119

Certified Manuscript Submission System Providers MUST:

  • Allow sign-in with ORCID iD and authenticate corresponding author and reviewed ORCID iDs
  • Use data from ORCID records to make registration and submission easier
  • Display authors’ and reviewers’ ORCID iDs to editors to make editing easier
  • Collect authenticated ORCID iDs from co-authors/collaborators
  • Collect authenticated ORCID iDs from reviewers 
  • Add peer review items to reviewers’ ORCID records
  • Include authenticated ORCID iDs in the metadata passed downstream
  • Make sure works are added to ORCID records when they’re published
  • Enable ORCID member organizations to use their own ORCID membership credentials when configuring the system
  • Document how platform users can use the ORCID functionality offered in training and promotional materials

Certified Manuscript Submission System Providers SHOULD:

  • Make sure authenticated ORCID iDs are displayed on published articles (if applicable)

Certified Manuscript Submission System Providers MAY:

  • Collect authenticated ORCID iDs for editors and conference organizers and add professional service items to their ORCID records

Overview

ORCID streamlines the publishing process, improves the management of author and reviewer databases, and enhances the accuracy of name-based article repository searches.

Publishers use ORCID-powered manuscript submission systems to clearly link authors and reviewers—and all their name variants—with their research. They do this by updating ORCID records, embedding ORCID iDs into publication metadata, and displaying ORCID iDs on finished publications. By including authenticated iDs in the metadata they free researchers from having to manually update their ORCID records, help speed the communication of research works, reduce the risk of errors and increase the trustworthiness of the scholarly record. They can also use data from the ORCID record such as researchers’ names, education history, and current affiliations to automatically populate profiles in their own systems reducing administrative burden for researchers and decreasing submissions times..

ORCID integrations within manuscript submission systems start by authenticating author and reviewer ORCID iDs and gaining permission to read from/write to their ORCID records, either immediately or in the future. They then either add published works to authors records themselves, or take advantage of ORCID’s auto-update feature when they send publication metadata embedded with ORCID iDs to DOI registration agencies, such as Crossref, DataCite, JALC or KISTI which can then propagate to the author’s’ ORCID records. Manuscript Submission Systems also add peer review credit to their reviewers’ ORCID records directly. 

Certification Criteria

  1. Allow sign-in with ORCID iD and authenticate corresponding author ORCID iD

Manuscript Submission Systems must obtain authenticated ORCID iDs and the permission to read from/write to the authors’ and reviewers ORCID records. This requires users to sign into ORCID from within the manuscript submission system, which then retrieves user data from the ORCID Registry using the ORCID API. It is also essential to provide information to users about why they are authenticating ORCID iDs and why this is beneficial to them. ORCID integrations must not allow manual entry of ORCID iDs by users.

This is achieved by providing a hyperlinked ORCID-branded button for obtaining authenticated ORCID iDs on the sign-in and registration pages, and providing an account linking function for users that already exist in the system. Using the ORCID button consistently helps ensure that researchers associate it with being asked to securely provide their iD, which in turn builds trust in ORCID as a reliable identifier. Note that an account linking option within a user settings page or similar is not enough on its own — ORCID should be made available as the easiest means of sign-in and registration for users. 

Authenticated sign-in saves researchers time, reduces password fatigue and provides unique identification of people for submission systems independent of their email address.

Further reading: What’s so special about signing in?

  1. Use data from ORCID records to make registration and submission easier

Researchers expect the data on their ORCID record to be read and used by other systems, to save them the time and effort and reduce the risk of errors. Manuscript Submission systems must collect relevant information from ORCID records about authors’ and reviewers’ names, affiliation, keywords, funding, research resources, works, peer reviews and datasets and use it to pre-fill their registration and profile forms.

Submission systems may also include  publication history information from ORCID records in their own reviewer database to aid reviewer selection, and can continuously check for updates and confirm changes with reviewers, to keep their profiles up to date.

  1. Provide author and reviewer ORCID iDs to editors to make editing easier

Once a researcher has connected their ORCID iD to a system, Manuscript Submission Systems must clearly display the iD within their profile and/or on their submission or review tasks so that it is available to the editor. This also helps the researcher  know that they have successfully connected and asserted their identity. Format the iD as a hyperlinked URI and include the green iD icon, per our display guidelines.

Also display authors’ ORCID iDs to reviewers if this is appropriate for the journal review policy.

  1. Collect authenticated ORCID iDs from co-authors/collaborators

Manuscript Submission Systems must collect authenticated ORCID iDs for all the authors. This ensures that they are recognized for their contribution, identified correctly within submission systems, and within the works metadata.

When collecting collaborator data from the corresponding author, submission systems should collect the email addresses. Upon submission, it must email  the collaborators and provide a link that asks them to sign in with their ORCID iD and confirm their authorship. 

  1. Collect authenticated ORCID iDs from reviewers

Registration of reviewers, if separate from registration from authors, should provide the same ORCID support as provided to corresponding authors. This means authenticating IDs at sign-in, collecting permissions and pre-filling forms in order to save them time. 

  1. Add peer review items to reviewers’ ORCID records

More complete profile data makes the reviewer selection process easier and helps to discover possible conflicts of interest. When recruiting new reviewers, editors can assign reviews based on previous contributions and activities sourced from the ORCID registry.

Manuscript Submission Systems must allow credit to be given to the reviewer in their ORCID record if this is in line with the journal policy. ORCID supports several types of peer review, including fully open and blind peer review. Care must be taken to ensure that updates to ORCID records share information for the correct review type.

By doing this, publishers and their submission systems can play their part in building a trusted research information infrastructure by asserting the connection between reviewers, their review activity and other contributions, which can then be re-used during future reviewer selection or evaluation.

  1. Include authenticated ORCID iDs in the metadata passed downstream

Authenticated author ORCID iDs collected by the Manuscript Submission System must be embedded into the work’s metadata exported by the system enabling them to be used throughout the publishing workflow. This means that, for example, when publication data is submitted to a DOI registration agency, the downstream systems can automatically update the ORCID record of the associated author(s). It also means that the researchers’ ORCID iDs will be searchable in databases that support searching by ORCID iDs, such as PubMed. When passing authenticated ORCID IDs to other systems, the metadata must clearly indicate that the ORCID iD has been authenticated when collected.

  1. Make sure authenticated ORCID iDs are displayed on published articles (if applicable) 

Combined submission and publication platforms must display the ORCID iDs of authors in the print and digital versions of finished publications, formatted as URLs, per our display guidelines. This enables readers to find out more about the authors from their ORCID records in a common and expected manner.

  1. Make sure works are added to ORCID records when they’re published

Submission systems must enable validated information about publications to be connected to authors’ and reviewers’ ORCID records. Doing so make life easier for authors, reviewers, editors, librarians and grant managers by automatically updating publication lists, helps disseminate research outputs and builds trust in the scholarly record. 

There are two ways to document the final publication by adding an entry to the works section of authors’ ORCID records:

  • For submission systems that have an integrated publication system, this can be done directly using the ORCID API and permissions granted by the authors at sign in.
  • Other systems should include authenticated ORCID iDs for authors in the metadata they send to publication systems, which are then used when creating DOIs. Crossref, DataCite and other DOI provider metadata deposits can then provide automatic updates to authors’ ORCID records.

For example, when Crossref creates a new DOI for a publication with an authenticated ORCID iD, they contact the author to request permission to add it to their ORCID record via the ORCID notification API. If the author grants permission to Crossref, then their ORCID record will also be automatically updated with any future publication that includes their validated ORCID.

  1. Enable ORCID member organizations to use their own ORCID membership credentials when configuring the system

ORCID requires that the organization using the ORCID API use their own ORCID API credentials (similar to an organizational username/password). This clearly indicates who is requesting access to update ORCID records, and is required by ORCID membership agreement

Multi-tenant and similar systems must provide the ability for ORCID member organizations to manage their own credentials within the system, or have a secure method of transferring credentials to the system. These credentials should then be used when authenticating users, collecting permissions and interacting with the ORCID API.

  1. Document how ORCID members can use the ORCID functionality offered in training and promotional materials

Multi-tenant and similar systems may share a link to the promotional and training materials on their website with ORCID so we can in-turn share with our community and help our members understand the value the system delivers. ORCID must be mentioned in the system’s setup guide or similar documentation, including outlining the benefits of enabling ORCID functionality.

Taking the integration to the next level

In order to provide a superior experience for your users, we strongly recommend that Manuscript Submission systems should:

  1. Collect authenticated ORCID iDs for editors and conference organizers and add professional service items to their ORCID records 

In addition to employment and education affiliations, Manuscript System Systems may allow ORCID member organizations can also add membership and service activities to their editors and conference organizers ORCID records. This is great news for journal editors, conference planning committee members, panel experts, advisory boards, and others who would like to be able to share information about their work and expertise with others, and to be publicly recognized for it.

This can be done using the ORCID API and the same permissions gathered to add works to ORCID records.