Linking Researchers with their Research: Persistent identifiers, registries, and interoperability standards

Presentation from Society for Neuroscience Meeting, 12 November 2013, in San Diego, CA, USA. ABSTRACT: There are several initiatives underway implement persistent and interoperable identifiers for researchers and their works, to facilitate information flow and enable data re-use. In this presentation, we will provide an overview of these initiatives. While in some scientific disciplines researcher identification and data citation is an established community norm, lack of interoperability between identification systems for research works on the one hand and contributors on the other remains a major hurdle. It is difficult not only to associate creators with their own research, but also to measure impact, track data use/reuse, and understand career contributions.
We will illustrate the potential of coordinating these initiatives using ORCID as a case study. ORCID is a community-driven organization dedicated to providing a registry of unique and persistent identifiers for researchers, and illustrate interoperability. This registry acts as a switchboard, connecting together existing but fragmented researcher identifiers, and stores persistent connections to publications, datasets, grants, other research works and current and past affiliations. ORCID is a key component in solving the name ambiguity problem in research communication, which in turn is critical for data re-use, collaboration, and reporting.