R&D&I Council recommends the use of persistent identifiers

Research, Development and Innovation Council at its 402nd meeting on June 28, 2024, adopted a resolution recommending:

  • Recipients of support should encourage their researchers to establish ORCID, ensuring that each researcher has a single ORCID identifier in the long term.
  • Research organizations should consider establishing and using a global, unique, and persistent identifier for the research organization according to ROR (Research Organization Registry), if they have not already done so.
  • Recipients of support should consider introducing and using a global, unique identifier according to ISO 23527:2022, Information and documentation Research activity identifier (RAiD) for their research projects, if they are not already doing so.

ORCID (Open Research and Contributor ID) serves as a permanent non-semantic identifier for scientists. ORCID is issued and managed by the independent non-profit organization ORCID, Inc., and can be obtained by registering at https://orcid.org/register, where the name and email address are entered, and optionally, the home institution. In the Czech Republic, the support for the implementation and effective use of the ORCID identifier is provided by the National ORCID Center (part of the National Center for Persistent Identifiers) at the National Technical Library. According to the 2023 annual report of ORCID, there are 8.1 million active records. From the perspective of European data protection, ORCID, Inc. is the data controller. Since registration is voluntary, personal data is processed based on the consent of the registrant.

In the current IS VaVaI (from version 2.6.0), the ORCID identifier is already present, and its provision is optional. Since 2020, 47% of Czech authors and 95% of foreign authors have at least once provided their ORCID in RIV. There is thus an opportunity for recipients of support to lead their researchers to establish ORCID and further its dissemination. With IS VaVaI version 3.4.0, which will be implemented at the beginning of 2025, an optional ROR field for recipients, additional project participants, and result submitters will be added in the CEP and RIV parts, and an optional RAiD field will be added for projects. Currently, the possibilities of incorporating the use of ORCID as a mandatory identifier for scientists in IS VaVaI into the relevant legal regulation are also being examined.

ROR (Research Organization Registry) is an initiative of the California Digital Library, Crossref, and DataCite. It is available at https://ror.org/. The goal is to provide a unique and persistent identifier for research organizations. The ROR ID is expressed as a URL that leads to the research organization’s record in ROR. The ROR identifier is used as part of the data for DOI and ORCID. ROR is a community-driven, open identifier (data is published under a CC0 license). The use of ROR is free of charge. Currently, about 2,000 research organizations from the Czech Republic (institutes of the Academy of Sciences, most Czech universities, university hospitals, and many private companies) are registered.

RAiD (Research Activity Identifier) is a permanent and globally unique identifier for research projects according to ISO 23527:2022. More information is available at https://raid.org/. The global registration authority for assigning RAiD is the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC). In March 2024, ARDC entered into a strategic partnership with the DOI registration agency DataCite (more here). The development around RAiD is being monitored by the National Center for Persistent Identifiers at the National Technical Library, and news will be published on the website identifikatory.cz.

Commentary from the National Centre for Persistent Identifiers (National Technical Library)

Research organizations can record information about their affiliation or publications in researchers’ professional profiles associated with ORCID iD. Organizations interested in ensuring that their researchers have verified and trusted information on their ORCID profiles, thus increasing their visibility, can become members of the National ORCID Centre under the National Technical Library (NTK). The national center provides financial, administrative, and methodological support for the use of ORCID iD. If you are interested in this service, please contact orcid@techlib.cz.

The persistent identifier for research organizations ROR (Research Organization Registry) is already assigned to most Czech research organizations. You can check if your organization has a ROR here: https://ror.org/search. If you are interested in establishing one, please contact the National Centre for Persistent Identifiers under NTK at identifikatory@techlib.cz; we will be happy to assist you with its establishment.

The RAiD persistent identifier for research activities is one of the newer identifiers, which is rapidly evolving thanks to the activities of its registration authority ARDC. At this moment, there is a significant development in the establishment of a strategic partnership between ARDC and the DOI registration agency DataCite. This will have a significant impact on the functioning of RAiD. In the coming months, it should become clearer whether the use of RAiD by Czech research organizations can also be supported – both methodologically and administratively, as well as financially – by the DOI National Centre under NTK. If you are interested in using the RAiD identifier, please let us know at identifikatory@techlib.cz.

The National Centre for Persistent Identifiers, including the services of the national ORCID and DOI centers, was established within the CARDS project.

Source:

Use of persistent identifiers in IS VaVaI

Minutes of the 402nd meeting of the Research, Development, and Innovation Council on June 28, 2024