Persistent Identifiers in Canada: ORCID Use Cases and a National PID Strategy

Abstract

Research generates a huge amount of information across many disconnected systems and technologies. Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) act as labels to uniquely identify research information ‘entities,’ like scholars, institutions, datasets, and publications. PIDs are anchors that help connect information about related entities (e.g., a scholar with their publications) and can enable software systems to effectively exchange information, making them more interoperable and FAIR. The gold standard PID for People is the ORCID iD provided by ORCID, an international not-for-profit sustained by institutional membership. In Canada, members are supported by the local consortium, ORCID-CA, in both English and French. In this session, first, we will explore what ORCID iDs are and, why they matter. We will place ORCID iDs within the broader PID ecosystem context, and then highlight the value of specific ORCID member tools, such as the Affiliation Manager (which enables institutions to add trusted affiliation information on behalf of their scholars, with scholar permission) and the Affiliation Report (a tool to measure ORCID impact and uptake at a given institution). Then, we will explore a community use case to demonstrate ORCID’s value and the usefulness of PIDs in assessing research impact. Finally, an update will be provided on the state of the development of a National PID Strategy for Canada, which was last discussed at BRIC 2022. Significant advancements have been made and a Roadmap to (PID) Success (community recommendations based on work to date) will be presented.