The document discusses using standardized identifiers to improve the scholarly communication supply chain. It describes how a lack of connections between systems and entities within the supply chain can lead to problems. The use of identifiers for people, organizations, and other entities could help eliminate duplicate records, enable seamless communication, and improve service quality. Identifiers like ORCID, ISNI, and Ringgold IDs could uniquely identify authors, institutions, and other parties to strengthen links across discovery services, publishers, libraries, and other parts of the supply chain. This would allow information to flow more accurately and efficiently.

1. ASA Annual Conference
26th February 2013
Laura Cox

2. Our purpose
 Lest we forget:
 Serving the author and reader
 Disseminate content as widely as possible
 Ensure content is easily discoverable
 Provide information in an efficient and trouble-free manner
regardless of:
 Content type
 User requirements
 Desired methods of access

3. The supply chain (simple version)
Author Funders
Submission
and Peer
End User
Review
System
Discovery Data Societies
Publisher
Service Providers and
Systems
(multiple)
Online Host
or
Consortium Library
Consortium Technology
Partner
Fulfilment Subscription
House or Agent or
System Sales Agent

4. What could possibly go wrong?
 Records are unconnected through the supply chain, links fail:
 Between entities
 Between internal systems
 Between external systems
 Renewals are mishandled
 Journal transfers are mishandled
 Access and authentication is mishandled
 Authors and individuals are not linked to their institution
 Open access fees have to be checked manually
 Authors are not linked to their research
 Funders are not linked to the research they fund

5. Where stronger links are needed
 Finding a path to using standardized data, which:
 Eradicates duplicate records within and between systems
 Enables seamless communication between organizations
 Smoothes the supply chain, removing ambiguity or lack of
information for any party
 Enables higher quality of service
 Increases understanding of customer base and enables better
decision making

6. How identifiers help
 Proper understanding of the customer, whether author,
reader or institution
 Provides a simple basis for wider data governance:
Data governance is defined as the processes, policies,
standards, organization, and technologies required to manage
and ensure the availability, accessibility, quality, consistency,
auditability, and security of data.

7. Ongoing data maintenance
 Identifiers enforce uniqueness
 Enable ongoing data governance
 Ensure systems and links between systems continue to
operate as intended
 Protects investment in obtaining data quality

8. Why now?
 Number of journals increasing by 3.5% per annum*
 Number of articles increasing by 3% per annum, current output is
1.8-1.9 million per year*
 Number of researchers increasing by 3% per annum*
 Now stand at between 6 and 9 million (depending on definition)*
 Growth in China has been in double digits for over 15 years*
 Increased demand for anytime/anywhere access
 Library budgets are frozen or being cut, less money for more
content means we have to work smarter
* Ware, M and Mabe, M, The STM Report, 2012

9. Identifiers available
 People  Organisations
 International Standard Name  International Standard Name
Identifier (ISNI) Identifier (ISNI)
 Open Researcher and  Ringgold ID
Contributor ID (ORCID)  DUNS Number (D&B) and
 Scopus Author Identifier other business and finance IDs
 ResearcherID  MDR PID Numbers and other
marketing IDs
 Library of Congress MARC
Code List for Organizations

10. ISNI
ISNI is designed ISNI Number ISNI Number
to be a “bridge
identifier”
Party ID 1 Party ID 2
Proprietary Proprietary
Information and/or Information and/or
Metadata Metadata

11. Author IDs
 ORCID is designed to persistently identify and disambiguate
scholarly researchers and attach them to research output.
 ORCID identifiers utilize a format compliant with the ISNI ISO
standard.
 ISNI has reserved a block of identifiers for use by ORCID, so
there will be no overlaps in assignments.
 Recorded as http://orcid.org/0000-0001-2345-6789
http://about.orcid.org/
http://www.isni.org/

12. Disambiguation
 Disambiguates all of the researchers called:
 Wang
 Li
 Smith
 Jones
 Disambiguates all of the different manners in which their name is
recorded:
 John J Smith
 J.J. Smith
 Smith, J
 Smith, John J
 Removes problems with name changes

13. Use cases
 Disambiguation of researchers and connection to all their research
 Links to contributors, editors, compilers and others involved in the
research process
 Embed IDs into research workflows and the supply chain:
 Submission and peer review systems
 Research organizations
 Research funders
 Discovery and profile systems, social media
 Links to altmetrics
 Integrate systems

14. Institutional IDs
 Ringgold is an ISNI Registration Agency
 Unique institutional ID number maps data across systems
 ISNI numbers should be used across the scholarly supply
chain to:

15. Use cases
 Disambiguate institutional records
 Eradicate duplication of data
 Map institutions into their hierarchy
 Ensure correct delivery, entitlements and access rights
 Link systems using the institutional ID as the lynchpin
 Link information that has never been linked before
 Enable accurate data transfer throughout the supply chain

16. Disambiguation
 Disambiguates all of the institutions with the same or similar name:
 NPL
 National Physical Laboratory (UK)
 National Physical Laboratory (India)
 York Univ.
 University of York (UK)
 York University (Canada)
 Newcastle Univ.
 Newcastle University (UK)
 University of Newcastle (Australia)
 Northeastern Univ.
 Northeastern University (Boston, USA)
 Northeastern University (Shenyang, China)

17. Disambiguation
 Disambiguates all of the different:
 Naming conventions
 Oxford University
 Univ. Oxford
 University of Oxford
 Library, University of Oxford
 Alternative names and acronyms
 Institut de Recherche et Documentation en Economie de la Santé
 IRDES
 Institute for Research and Information in Heath Economics

18. Putting the two together
 Author ID and Affiliation ID linked correctly provides:
 Market intelligence about authors and institutions
 Usage of identifiers
 Authors and subscribers mapped together
 Where research funding is concentrated
 Ability to track open access charges (APCs) to fee structure
automatically

19. Internal linking – in your systems
 Using identifiers to connect:
 Customer master file
 Financial system
 CRM/Sales database
 Authentication system
 Fulfilment
 Usage statistics
 Submissions system
 Author information
 Access information from multiple systems in one place
 Reduces time and cost in locating information
 Utilize information to make decisions and inform strategy

20. External linking – in the supply chain
 Using Identifiers will:
 Ensure accuracy of information
 Speed up data transactions
 Reduce queries
 Reduce costs
 Open data up to new uses
 Provide a seamless supply chain where data flows from one
organisation to the next unhindered
 Ensures that authors receive credit for the work they produce
 Ensures that end users receive uninterrupted access to the
content they need

21. The supply chain
Author Funders
Submission
and Peer
End User
Review
System
Discovery Data Societies
Publisher
Service Providers and
Systems
(multiple)
Online Host
or
Consortium Library
Consortium Technology
Partner
Fulfilment Subscription
House or Agent or
System Sales Agent

22. The supply chain using identifiers
Consortium

23. “Pulling together”
 ASA is the ideal forum
 Engage with the problems in data transfer
 Generate an industry wide policy on using identifiers
 Break down data silo mentality
 Utilize universal identifiers to enable our systems to
communicate with each other accurately on an ongoing basis
 Serve the author and reader more effectively
 Strengthen the links in the supply chain

24. Laura Cox
Chief Marketing Officer
Ringgold Inc.
laura.cox@ringgold.com