This year, metadata development is one of our key priorities and weâre making a start with the release of version 5.4.0 of our input schema with some long-awaited changes. This is the first in what will be a series of metadata schema updates.
What is in this update?
Publication typing for citations
This is fairly simple; weâve added a âtypeâ attribute to the citations members supply. This means you can identify a journal article citation as a journal article, but more importantly, you can identify a dataset, software, blog post, or other citation that may not have an identifier assigned to it. This makes it easier for the many thousands of metadata users to connect these citations to identifiers. We know many publishers, particularly journal publishers, do collect this information already and will consider making this change to deposit citation types with their records.
Every year we release metadata for the full corpus of records registered with us, which can be downloaded for free in a single compressed file. This is one way in which we fulfil our mission to make metadata freely and widely available. By including the metadata of over 165 million research outputs from over 20,000 members worldwide and making them available in a standard format, we streamline access to metadata about scholarly objects such as journal articles, books, conference papers, preprints, research grants, standards, datasets, reports, blogs, and more.
Today, weâre delighted to let you know that Crossref members can now use ROR IDs to identify funders in any place where you currently use Funder IDs in your metadata. Funder IDs remain available, but this change allows publishers, service providers, and funders to streamline workflows and introduce efficiencies by using a single open identifier for both researcher affiliations and funding organizations.
As you probably know, the Research Organization Registry (ROR) is a global, community-led, carefully curated registry of open persistent identifiers for research organisations, including funding organisations. Itâs a joint initiative led by the California Digital Library, Datacite and Crossref launched in 2019 that fulfills the long-standing need for an open organisation identifier.
We began our Global Equitable Membership (GEM) Program to provide greater membership equitability and accessibility to organizations in the worldâs least economically advantaged countries. Eligibility for the program is based on a memberâs country; our list of countries is predominantly based on the International Development Association (IDA). Eligible members pay no membership or content registration fees. The list undergoes periodic reviews, as countries may be added or removed over time as economic situations change.
Crossref goes live in tandem with DataCite to push both publication and dataset information to ORCID profiles automatically. All organisations that deposit ORCID iDs with Crossref and/or DataCite will see this information going further, automatically updating author records.
Weâre cross-posting ORCIDâs blog below with all the details:
Since ORCIDâs inception, our key goal has been to unambiguously identify researchers and provide tools to automate the connection between researchers and their creative works. We are taking a big step towards achieving this goal today, with the launch of Auto-Update functionality in collaboration with Crossref and [DataCite](https://www.datacite.org/.
Thereâs already been a lot of excitement about Auto-Update: Crossrefâs recent announcement about the imminent launch generated a flurry of discussion and celebration on social media. Our own tweet on the topic was viewed over 10,500 times and retweeted by 60 other accounts.
So why all the fuss? We think Auto-Update will transform the way researchers manage their scholarly record. Until now, researchers have had to manually maintain their record, connecting new activities as they are made public. In ORCID, that meant using Search & Link tools developed by our member organizations to claim works manually. Researchers frequently ask, âWhy, if I include my ORCID iD when I submit a manuscript or dataset, isnât my ORCID record âautomagicallyâ updated when the work is published?â
With the launch of Auto-Update, that is just what will happen.
It might seem like magic but there are a few steps to make it work:
Publishers and data centers. These organizations also have two things to do: (1) collect ORCID identifiers during the submission workflow, using a process that involves authentication (not a type-in field!), and (2) embed the iD in the published paper and include the iD when submitting information to Crossref or DataCite.
Crossref and DataCite. Upon receipt of data from a publisher or data center with a valid identifier, Crossref or DataCite can automatically push that information to the researcherâs ORCID record.
More information about how to opt out of this service can be found here: the ORCID Inbox.
Why is this so revolutionary?
A bit of background, first. Crossref and DataCite, both non-profit organizations, are leaders in minting DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) for research publications and datasets. A DOI is a unique alphanumeric string assigned to a digital object â in this case, an electronic journal article, book chapter, or a dataset. Each DOI is associated with a set of basic metadata and a URL pointer to the full text, so that it uniquely identifies the content item and provides a persistent link to its location on the internet.
Crossref, working with over a thousand scholarly publishers, has generated well over 75 million DOIs for journal articles and book chapters. DataCite works with nearly 600 data centers worldwide and has generated over 6.5 million DOIs to date. Between them, Crossref and DataCite have already received almost a half a million works from publishers and data centers that include an ORCID iD validated by the author/contributor. With Auto-Update functionality in place, information about these articles can transit (with the authorâs permission) to the authorâs ORCID record.
Auto-Update doesnât stop at a researcherâs ORCID record. Systems that have integrated ORCID APIs and have a researcherâs ORCID record connected to that system â their faculty profile system, library repository, webpage, funder reporting system â can receive alerts from ORCID. Information can move easily and unambiguously across systems.
This is the beginning of the end for the endless rekeying of information that plagues researchers â and anyone involved in research reporting. Surely something to celebrate!
Questions you may have:
Q. What do I need to do to sign up for auto-update?
You need to grant permission to Crossref and DataCite to post information to your ORCID record. You can do this today by using the Search and Link wizard for DataCite available through the ORCID Registry or the DataCite Metadata Search page. We also have added a new ORCID Inbox, so that you can receive a message from Crossref or DataCite if they receive a datafile with your iD, and you can grant permission directly. See More on the ORCID Inbox.
Q. Will Crossref and DataCite be able to update my ORCID record with already published works for which I did not use my ORCID iD?
No. The auto-update process only applies to those works that these organizations receive that include your ORCID iD. For previous works that did not include your ORCID iD, you will need to use the DataCite and Crossref Search and Link wizards to connect information with your iD.
Q. What information will be posted to my record?
With your permission, basic information about the article (such as title, list of contributors, journal or publisher) or dataset (such as data center name and date of publication) will be posted, along with a DOI that allows users to navigate to the source paper or dataset landing page.
Q. What if my journal or data center doesnât collect ORCID iDs?
Ask them to! This simple step can be accomplished using either the Public or Member ORCID APIs. Information about integrating ORCID iDs in publishing and repository workflows is publicly available.
