The Jisc-ARMA ORCID pilot project (http://orcidpilot. jiscinvolve.org/wp/) ran from May 2014 to January 2015. This session will take a pilot participant view of implementing ORCID iDs in a UK higher education context. It will look in detail at the experiences of at least one of the pilot sites, and some of the technical and cultural challenges posed by ORCID iD implementation.

1. Distinguishing ourselves
Experiences of ORCID iD implementation and
the Jisc-ARMA pilot
Janette Colclough
Research Support Manager, Information Directorate, University of York
UKSG Breakout session 2015

2. This session
 Background to ORCID iDs and the Jisc-ARMA ORCID
pilot
 A detailed case study from the University of York
 Experiences from other JISC-ARMA pilot sites
 Next steps and key contacts
 Questions

3. Background

4. ORCID and the name ambiguity problem
 Names are not unique but an Open Researcher and
Contributor Identifier is
 Open, non-profit, community-driven organisation
– Registry of iDs and activities/outputs
– API to link systems
 Free for individual researchers
 Membership basis for organisations
– Basic or Premium, Trusted Party or Creator
 Over 1 million iDs issued
 For more information see http://orcid.org/

5. Jisc-ARMA ORCID Pilot project
 Follows Joint statement in support of ORCID Jan 2013
– ARMA, HEFCE, HESA, JISC, RCUK, UCISA, Wellcome Trust
 8 HEI-based pilots May 2014 – Jan 2015
 Aims
– Streamline implementation at universities
– Develop best value approach for potential UK-wide adoption
 Objectives
– Explore embedding of iDs into systems and workflows
– Assess costs, benefits and risks
– Gather evidence for national ORCID membership

6. Implementing ORCID
iDs at the University of
York

7. University of York Context
 Founded 1963
 Research intensive (14th in REF)
 Member of the Russell Group
and White Rose Consortium
 16,000 students, 1,400 academic
and research staff
 >30 departments in humanities,
social sciences, sciences
 High duck density

8. Key features of the York project
 Voluntary registration for iDs by researchers, with institutional
support and advocacy
 Backed by institutional policy (University Policy on the
Publication of Research)
 Technology: Integration of ORCID iD functionality into CRIS (Pure)
 Technology: Use EPrints connector to populate the shared
repository (White Rose Research Online) with ORCID iDs
 Joint Information Directorate and Research Strategy and
Policy Office project

9. Technical set up
 Membership of ORCID
– Basic Creator licence enabling one API integration
 Easy to activate once Pure options were available and
working
 Initial problems with EPrints connector (now solved)
 See Julie Allinson’s York ORCID blog entry for more
information

10. Pilot stage exercise: Technical/advocacy issues
 3 week trial with 4 departments
– Range of subject areas
– Included online survey
 Over 70 iDs in Pure
– Uptake 17% - 40%
– No patterns by discipline
 Add/Create options in Pure
– More instructions needed
– Discrepancy between no. of iDs in Pure and listed on ORCID
– Researchers did not Save their iD into Pure
– Unsaved changes request to Pure

11. Pilot stage exercise: further findings
There appears to be
no information in
the ORCID account
Did you already have an ORCID iD?
Pre-pilot >200 iDs with York email
address
It's useful to
attribute work to
the right author
Role of research administrators
• Increased uptake
• But can remove ownership of
iD from researcher?

12. Implementation for academic and research staff
 Email from Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research
– Direct request to create/add iD into PURE
– Key message: credit for high quality research
 Website modified from pilot stage exercise
– www.york.ac.uk/orcid
– Added instructions
– More on benefits of Pure
– Clear that iD only
 Pre-launch promotion
– Bookmarks distributed to researchers
– York Research Administrators Forum

13. Uptake to date (March 2015)
 > 500 ORCID iDs in Pure
 35% of staff with Pure
profiles
 > 850 iDs with York email
 Higher for academic staff
15.43
20.51
64.06
Uptake: iDs by Faculty
Arts & Humanities
Social Sciences
Sciences
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
26.70% 27.48%
36.07%
Uptake rate by Faculty

14. Other progress
 EPrints connector to repository (WRRO) now live
– Need to monitor impact on repository
– Consider reload of data
 Ensure iDs visible in York Research Database
– Plan and funding in place to update Pure portal
 Initial steps towards implementation for postgraduate
research students and staff without Pure profiles
– PGR students are an investment in the future

15. Next steps at York
 Target postgraduate research students
– Work with new York Graduate Research School and GSA
 Work on sustainability issues
– Continuing costs; monitor JISC consultation on national
agreement for ORCID membership
– ORCID iDs for new staff and students
 Maintain awareness of new use cases
– Metadata round trip
– Export from Pure to ORCID profile
 Integration into other IDM systems

16. Benefits of our approach
 Voluntary sign-up
– Match culture of the organisation
– Avoids issues of bulk create
 ORCID iDs embedded in the CRIS
– Core system for researchers
– Uses existing Pure functionality
– Associated with research outputs
– Feed out to repository via EPrints connector
– Maximise potential re-use / system interoperability
 Policy on the Publication of Research
– Demonstrates institutional commitment
“ORCID has allowed us
to distinguish - and
other people to
distinguish - between
one person's work and
the other's”
Research Fellow, Arts &
Humanities

17. Lessons learned
 Initial signs are that voluntary sign-up can work
– But we are still at an early stage!
– Potential negative association with CRIS
– Difficult to demonstrate immediate benefit to researchers
 Top-level buy-in is essential
 Cross-team working is essential
– And brings additional benefits
 The communications strategy vital
– And needs to be targeted
 It can never be made too easy for researchers!
“It is a no
brainer”
Prof Computer Science

18. Concerns going forward
 Dependence on systems
suppliers and ORCID
– Trust that systems will work
 Sustainability issues
– Resourcing, membership
 When will we see the benefits?
– Still in early stages of adoption
– Integration into grant applications,
research outcomes (ResearchFish)
and REF?
– Burgess Review recommendations
– New use cases

19. Find out more about the York project
 See York ORCID blog http://yorkorcid.blogspot.co.uk/
– Users and use case
– Technical approaches
– Lessons learned
– Our approach
– Latest updates

20. Other experiences of
the Jisc-ARMA ORCID
Pilot

21. Acknowledgments
 Aston: Heather Whitehouse
(h.d.whitehouse@aston.ac.uk)
 Imperial: Torsten Reimer (t.reimer@imperial.ac.uk)
 Kent: Kirsty Wallis (K.R.Wallis@kent.ac.uk)

22. Jisc / ARMA ORCiD Pilot Projects 2014/15
Aston University
23 %
academics
registered
during
project
Web based
training material
High level buy-in
Click and Connect
set up in Pure: Click
on link in Pure to
create or register
ORCiD
Confusion with
other Author ID
systems used for
citation metrics
Prepared for
future system
integration
Email and
‘meetings’
campaign

23. Orcid @Imperial (Jisc-ARMA-ORCID pilot)
Project aims:
• Raise awareness of ORCID
• Issue researchers with an iD
• Encourage uptake of ORCID
Approach:
• Capture existing iDs via
Symplectic Elements
• Offer an opt-out
• Create iDs on behalf of
academics via API
• Pre-populate profiles, but leave
academics to decide what will
be made public
• Encourage academics to link
iD to Symplectic Elements
Date Activity
06/11 • ORCID web pages go live
• ORCID support in Symplectic Elements goes live
• Email from the Provost to all staff
14/11 • Follow-on email from ORCID project to all staff
20/11 • Reminder distributed via Heads of Departments
27/11 • Final day to opt-out or add an existing iD to
Elements
03/12 • Email to all staff who had not opted out informing
them that ORCID creation is imminent
• ORCID iD creation process
• ORCID claim email sent from ORCID
11/12 • ORCID identified 325 staff who already had an iD
but did not link it to Elements before 03/12; as a
result no iDs were created for them. The project
emailed these colleagues, encouraging them to add
their iD to Elements.
08/01 • Reminder email to staff who had not linked their
ORCID to their Symplectic Elements' account

24. Achievements / Lessons
• Academic interest – 1155 iDs claimed and linked back to College within 7 weeks.
• Privacy concerns did not prove to be a major concern – engage proactively.
• Clear communications and strong support across the university, incl. senior
management, were essential for smooth process. Clear messages, clear workflow.
• Number of iDs used is important, not number of iDs created.
Project report: https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk:8443/handle/10044/1/19271
Contact: Dr Torsten Reimer t.reimer@imperial.ac.uk
Project in numbers #
Overall number of staff included initially 4,347
Staff excluded (because they had chosen not to be listed in the College's public staff directory) 332
Staff opting out through the online form 25
Staff who added their existing ORCID iDs to Symplectic Elements before the roll-out 439
Staff with existing iDs, as identified through ORCID de-duplication 325
New staff iDs created 3,226
Metadata on publications ("works") added to the ORCID registry >240,000
Staff iDs linked to Symplectic (as of 19/01/15) 1,155
Staff asking for their newly created iD to be deleted (usually because they already had one that
was missed by the de-duplication)
7

25. Kent Early ORCID Project
• Large scale awareness raising and advocacy project
• Project used a team comprised of PhD students and Early
career researchers as advocates
• Provided a wide range of materials for outreach activities:
• ORCID t-shirts and hoodies
• Posters and leaflets
• Assorted gifts and branded sweets
Results:
• Over 200 independent sign-ups to ORCID at the University of
Kent and increasing
• Web content and ongoing support in place
• Widespread awareness of ORCID in all user groups
• Plans for continued advocacy in place across the university
www.kent.ac.uk/library/research/orcid
ORCIDsupport@kent.ac.uk

26. The other project sites
 Northumbria University
– Moving ORCID Upstream: iD mandatory part of postgraduate
research student project approval in student records; link to
HESA return
 University of Oxford
– Integration with core user identity systems (pilot)
 Southampton University
– ORCID Service linking to University identity
 Swansea
– Embedded into HR system, linked to Research Information
System and repository

27. Next steps and key
contacts

28. Next steps for Jisc-ARMA
 ORCID Pilot Project reporting:
– Summary reports from participating sites
– Final project report
– Institutional implementation and cost benefit analysis
 Consultation on ORCID consortium membership for the
UK
 Reconvening implementation group
 Considering other support options e.g. technical
 See Jisc-ARMA ORCID pilot project website
– http://orcidpilot.jiscinvolve.org/wp/

29. Key contacts
 Jisc-ARMA project contact:
– Verena Weigert (Verena.Weigert@jisc.ac.uk)
 Cost-benefit analysis contact:
– Rob Johnson (rob.johnson@researchconsulting.co.uk)
 ORCID Regional Director, Europe
– Josh Brown (J.Brown@orcid-eu.org)

30. Any further
questions?

31. Thank you for listening
UKSG Breakout session 2015
Janette Colclough
Research Support Manager
Information Directorate
University of York
Email: janette.colclough@york.ac.uk
Web: www.york.ac.uk/library
orcid.org/0000-0003-4767-6801