Concordia Library implements ORCID, a unique digital research identifier

Concordia is now offering a service for faculty and researchers to support the attribution and visibility of their academic output.

The platform is known as ORCID, which stands for Open Researcher and Contributor ID. An ORCID iD is a unique, persistent identifier assigned to an individual researcher to distinguish them from others — and it’s free. This digital research identifier connects others with their work and ensures that the author’s publications, data sets, grants, performances and other types of research contributions are correctly attributed.

ORCID is a non-profit organization and is open source. It is supported by a global community of member organizations, including Concordia.

“ORCID, with its majority non-profit governance structure, wide adoption among publishers, funding agencies, repositories and aggregators, offers the most promising community-supported choice for a persistent identifier for researchers,” notes Tomasz Neugebauer, digital projects and systems development librarian at Concordia Library.

Benefits of an ORCID iD

ORCID facilitates researchers interested in highlighting their body of work. It is easy to register for an ORCID iD and it’s simple to use. With ORCID, researchers increase the visibility of their projects by compiling their research output in one central location.

An ORCID iD helps promote research and it empowers researchers to select their level of control such as by managing the privacy of their publicly visible works.

Neugebauer explains that as a researcher ORCID has helped him save time in curating and sharing his publication history with research funders, the university and the public.

“The interoperability of ORCID with publisher systems reduces the need to retype and refill online forms with all the bibliographic details of my publications, as these can be imported into ORCID,” he says.

“Importantly, the addition of publications to my ORCID profile is accomplished through a permission system that leaves me, the researcher, in full control of the visibility of the information in my profile as well as the choice of which publishers or repositories can add information to it.”

Faculty already using ORCID recognize and appreciate how it distinguishes them from other researchers and provides visibility to their research output.

Kathleen Vaughan, professor of art education in the Faculty of Fine Arts, is among those registered. She explains that as an artist-researcher who works in research–creation as well as forms of qualitative research, she chose to develop an ORCID profile almost as a political gesture.

“I wished to be sure my creative projects were visible within ORCID’s academically oriented context — and in doing so to help make space for research–creation in general,” says Vaughan, who is also Concordia University Research Chair in Art + Education for Sustainable and Just Futures (Tier 1).

“Now that I’ve got the ORCID profile, I appreciate the versatility of the platform and feel that the ID helps signal my deep commitment to research as a practice.”

In addition to promoting research, an ORCID iD also facilitates collaboration amongst researchers across borders, institutions and disciplines.

Jason Camlot, professor of English in the Faculty of Arts and Science, says he first learned about ORCID when he attended a CANARIE summit on research data management.

“I was interested in large systems and methods to use for managing research data on a large-scale international research project I was directing, and I did learn much on that topic,” he shares.

“But perhaps the best takeaway from that meeting was my understanding of the existence and usefulness of ORCID as an effective system designed to be easy to use, so that data about our own individual research outputs can be preserved, catalogued, shared and discovered for the long term.”

Camlot, who is also Concordia University Research Chair in Literature and Sound Studies, English (Tier 1), adds that ORCID is an excellent example of a system that becomes more beneficial and powerful the more researchers decide to use it.

“It is a great way for researchers of all disciplines to have their research activities linked across numerous data systems, and thus a powerful way to get your research in the hands of colleagues across the world.”

Upcoming ORCID workshops

Concordia Library is hosting two upcoming sessions on ORCID, led by scholarly publishing librarian Rachel Harris and digital scholarship librarian Joshua Chalifour.

Harris notes that she and Chalifour are among the librarians available to assist with ORCID. “This scholarly tool is designed to help fellow researchers in our digital information age,” she says.

The drop-in style sessions on ORCID will provide researchers with an opportunity to learn more about the platform or get tailored support on establishing an ORCID iD and populating it.

ORCID: Your bibliography, your profile

• Webster Library, LB-322
• Tuesday, November 15
• From 10 to 11 a.m.

• Vanier Library, VL-122
• Wednesday, November 16
• From 2 to 3 p.m.

Visit the Concordia Library website to learn more about the benefits of ORCID and getting started with ORCID and to check out the ORCID workshops.