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Austria launches its ORCID Consortium

In January 2019, the TU Wien (represented by the TU Wien Bibliothek) and the University of Vienna (represented by the Vienna University Library) joined forces to lead the ORCID Austria consortium currently comprising of eleven institutions, which aims to increase the uptake and relevance of the ORCID iD as a unique identifier for researchers in Austria. Having an ORCID iD improves the international research profile for individual scientists, whereas institutions benefit from an increased international visibility of their research outputs through ORCID memberships.

On June 13th, the TU Wien and the University of Vienna hosted the ORCID Austria Launch Event, joining forces with ORCID and kindly supported by E-Infrastructures Austria Plus. This was the third ORCID workshop hosted on Austrian soil, but the very first with a national consortium in place. ORCID is gaining momentum in Austria, which is reflected by its uptake statistics (around 23.000 ORCID iDs have been registered so far with an ".at" e-mail address!)

35 participants from 24 institutions had the opportunity to discuss the benefits and integration of ORCID, as well as the issues they encountered during the process. Thanks to the participation of Paul Vierkant (Helmholtz Centre Potsdam) and Pauline Crépel (MyScienceWork), the discussion could be extended beyond Austrian borders and systems.

The appropriate maintenance of ORCID records is a central factor of an institutional ORCID membership, which also simplifies research assessment activities and makes them more reliable. For this maintenance, the technical component of an ORCID integration must be considered. Therefore, Gabriela Mejías focused on the use of the ORCID API, its combination with different research information systems, and the establishment of reliable connections by its means.Moreover, given the user-driven character of ORCID, Pauline Crépel stressed the importance of creating user-friendly systems. It has to be guaranteed that users connect their ORCID-record with the integrating system in an intuitive way.

During the panel discussion, the panellists contributed their personal views on and experience withintegrating ORCID and the use of ORCID in funding applications. It is noteworthy that the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) is one of the eleven Funders Open Letter signatories, showing a strong commitment for ORCID integrations. Moreover, the use of ORCID was associated to current Austrian legislation on personal data within universities and research institutions. The subsequent debate revolved around data privacy, technical difficulties or lack of technical staff, and requirements for information systems used in Austria (for instance, PURE, Researchfish, OJS). In conclusion the consortium members were asked to provide feedback on which systems will be potential candidates for future ORCID integrations in Austria. This information is crucial for the consortium lead in order to establish international links through the ORCID community to tackle the issues that will arise with each integration.

ORCID Austria: outlook for Q4 2019?

After the official launch of ORCID Austria, the TU Wien Bibliothek and the Vienna University Library will publish the Joint Statement of Principles and launch the consortium website shortly. The website is a platform with information, frequently asked questions and regular news and updates about ORCID (both in Austria and internationally) for consortium members and beyond.

The consortium lead will also host an open participation webinar to comment on the first year of the consortium and to show some implementation use cases in December.

Blog Post is authored by Paloma Marin Arraiza and Christian Gumpenberger

Foto by Ursula Ulrych

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