Records in the Open Access Articles collection in the DSpace@MIT repository now include ORCIDs — or Open Researcher Contributor Identifiers — for MIT authors who have the alphanumeric identifier attached to their names. Staff in the Libraries, who worked on the project between April and December 2016, also created an automatic process to add ORCIDS to new records as they enter the OA collection.

Before the project began, MIT did not have a standard identifier for authors in DSpace records, and data integrators did not have the ability to see ORCIDs or find associated resources. Now, when searching in DSpace by a researcher’s ORCID, all publications associated with that ORCID will be returned. For more information on ORCIDs at MIT, visit our Libguide.

The ORCID system is an emerging, yet widely supported, mechanism for assigning and managing persistent and unambiguous personal identifiers for use in the scholarly attribution chain. Implementing ORCIDs in DSpace is another step toward uniquely identifying and connecting researchers and authors with their contributions and affiliations. This enhances discovery of authors and content across disciplines.

The project team includes Micah Altman, project sponsor; Sean Thomas, business owner; Richard Rodgers, technical advisor; Solh Zendeh, software developer; Carl Jones, developer; Beverly Turner and Ben Abrahamse, metadata experts; and Caitlin Robles; project manager.