ORCID Advocacy Toolkit/Audiences

Are you promoting the benefits of ORCID to researchers or writing an elevator pitch to senior leadership?

The information you need will vary depending on your audience. This section provides guidance based on the following audience types.

Researchers can be divided both by subject / discipline and career stage -

The Researcher Audience section looks deeper into those profiles, at the differing messages and appropriate means of communication

To engage researchers, it's crucial to demonstrate the personal value of having an ORCID. Given that most researchers are time-poor, they are unlikely to engage with any activity unless they see tangible benefits for themselves. Using real-life case studies is highly effective, as it places ORCID into a relatable context.

Personal benefits to emphasise include:

• Name Disambiguation: Prevent others from getting credit for their work. For example, papers may be incorrectly assigned to the wrong person in databases like Scopus or Google Scholar. Can you find an example in your institution where this has happened?
• Name Variations: Academics with names that appear in various forms may find their work scattered across multiple profiles online. This can result in significantly lower citation counts in Scopus and Google Scholar than in reality. Using an ORCID helps to prevent this. Jonathan Van Tam, of Covid fame, is a good example. His name has been published as Jonathan S. Nguyen-Van-Tam, J.S. Nguyen Tam, Nguyen Tam etc. ORCID can be particularly helpful for academics with double-barralled names.
• Global CV: An up-to-date ORCID can serve as a global CV, with outputs authenticated by institutions and publishers. The ORCID remains with the researcher, even if they move to another institution. Show an example of a detailed ORCID profile.
• Saving Time: Linking ORCID to Research Fish allows researchers to import their project's publications in just a few minutes.
• Showing Hidden Activity: ORCID connects to many peer-reviewing platforms, enabling previously hidden activities to be properly acknowledged. Use the examples from the ORCID pages.
• Linking: ORCID can be synced with systems like PURE, Symplectic, and Scopus, ensuring that outputs added in one place are updated across others. Demonstrate how quick this is to set up.

Librarians and Information Specialists are uniquely placed to play a pivotal role in liaising with stakeholders and communicating effectively the benefits of ORCID. Promoting ORCID will help increase the adoption of good research practice which may align with professional and institutional goals. In addition to the points above, Librarians and Information Specialists will also benefit from:

• Accurate Bibliographies: By connecting the correct researchers to their publications, ORCID improves the scholarly record through use of trust markers and increases the value of responsible bibliometrics work.
• Collection Development: It's possible to use ORCID to gain an understanding of the research interests of stakeholders. This in turn will aid the decision making process on what materials are relevant to acquire.
• Discoverability: Increasing the visibility of works and making it easier for researchers to connect with each other, ORCID increases the opportunity for collaboration and sharing knowledge.
• Enhanced Network: As a global community, ORCID makes it easier to maintain links with past, present and future researchers.

Open Research colleagues will likely already be familiar with ORCID. An overview over the current uptake and plans to widen participation is useful, and they can act as ambassadors for the case.

• provide them with one or two Powerpoint slides that they can include in any presentations they give
• ask for the project to be included in relevant newsletters

There are many other teams at HEIs that will be affected by a higher usage of ORCID.

• research support / grant teams (funder policies might mandate ORCID iDs)
• system teams (for further integration)
• impact teams (sharing of research)
• partnership teams (visibility)

Target audience

Senior-level decision-makers in research funders, government agencies, consortia, and institutional leadership responsible for policy, strategy or funding mandates.

Why this group matters

• ORCID mandates bring consistency to grant applications, reporting, and evaluation across systems and institutions.
• They support research transparency, reduce administrative duplication, and improve accuracy in tracking public investment and outputs.

Soft vs. hard mandate distinctions

• **Soft mandates**: ORCID or PID inclusion is strongly encouraged and made administratively easier (e.g. embedded into workflows, single‑sign‑on), but non‑compliance does not block funding or submission.
• **Hard mandates**: Compliance is required—for example, grant applications or reporting systems refuse progress unless an ORCID is provided.

Key needs and messages

• Interoperability: ORCID enables seamless linking of researcher IDs with funder, institutional or publishing systems.
• Efficiency: Mandating ORCID reduces manual data entry and improves reporting workflows.
• Trust & openness: As an open, researcher-controlled standard, it complements open science and research integrity policies.

Resources & supporting evidence

• UK PID cost-benefit analysis (2021, revised 2022) quantifying efficiency and financial gains, commissioned by Jisc.
• International case studies: ARDC (Australia) and NIH initiative proposals highlighting benefits of PID adoption.

A quantitative analysis is often what helps decision makers see the effects of resources spent on ORCID implementation.

• use Member Portal reports for visual analyses
• consider before-and-after scenarios by downloading data before each campaign
• point out sector requirements (funders, REF, industry)
• explain what other institutions have done (see case studies) or where possible benchmark against institutions you know have particularly good uptake (there is no benchmarking tool in place, so this will be anecdotal).

IT colleagues are important when the technical implementation in platforms takes place. Also check with IT services when:

• you expect an email from the ORCID domain to go to a large number of staff and students, e.g. when using the Affiliation Manager with the option of automated emails. IT services will be able to exclude the domain from spam warnings, making sure that the email will not be held back or viewed with suspicion.