ORCID formed a technical working group in February 2013 to examine the metadata used for Works in the ORCID Registry. We charged the group to review the current Works data and service models, and present recommendations for improvements (See the complete Charge of the Works Metadata Working Group.) While usability and display of Works were not directly a part of the group’s charge, these topics surfaced occasionally, and suggestions also were noted.
The Group’s Recommendations
The full set of recommendations can be found on the working group’s page on the ORCID website. The key themes of the recommendations:
- Machine-to-machine use cases provide important drivers to the metadata used. Focus should be on actionable (resolvable) identifiers, that easily can be parsed by a machine.
- Metadata interoperability is best supported when using standard, recognized, published and maintained vocabularies (ontologies).
The recommendations provide specific suggestions for improvements in the areas of actionable external identifiers, citations, work types, internationalization and contribution types and roles.
Many Thanks to our Diverse Group of Participants
Twenty volunteers from of ORCID’s extended technical and metadata expert community participated in the group. The membership represented a good cross-section of the ORCID constituency, with publishers, metadata experts, academic libraries, service providers, identifier experts and more contributing. The group met in a series of conference calls, and posted comments to a project website between calls. We extend our thanks to the members of this working group, particularly its chair, Richard Rodgers:
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