ORCID in New Zealand FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions about ORCID consortium membership in New Zealand
If you have questions about the New Zealand ORCID Consortium, and which aren't answered below, please feel free to email: orcid@royalsociety.org.nz
As questions are received, they and their answers will appear below:
What is ORCID?
Open Researcher and Contributor ID gives each person in the worldwide research community a unique identifier that distinguishes them and their professional activities from everyone else. It solves the issue of name ambiguity, where people have the same or similar names or publish under multiple versions of their name: JB Smith; Jane B Smith; Jane Belinda Smith; Smith, JB; Smith, Jane B.
What is ORCID membership for organisations?
By becoming a member of ORCID, a research organisation or funder can connect their in-house systems with ORCID, allowing direct access to the ORCID IDs of their researchers (with their permission), saving both the organisation and the researcher time. Because the information in an ORCID record is machine readable, it removes the need to enter the same information multiple times in different places.
What is the New Zealand ORCID consortium?
The consortium currently allows up to 99 eligible organisations to gain the benefits of premium membership of ORCID, giving certain privileges over and above standard membership. These include personalised monthly reports and the ability to receive automatic updates (webhooks) to your system when any new information is posted to the ORCID record of a researcher associated with your system. New Zealand members also gain access to the New Zealand ORCID Hub.
Which organisations are eligible to join the NZ ORCID Consortium?
New Zealand institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, and government research and funding agencies are entitled to be covered under the Consortium Fee. Inclusion of organisations based in New Zealand and legally affiliated with these entities is up to the discretion of ORCID, MBIE, the Royal Society Te Apārangi and the NZ ORCID Consortium Advisory Committee. Please contact the Society if you have any questions about eligibility.
Is there a cost to becoming a Consortium member?
No, not directly. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has generously agreed to support the Society's ORCID Work Programme. This Work Programme currently includes payment of the consortium fee for up to 99 eligible New Zealand organisations to join in a national approach to ORCID membership.
The Ministry has also supported the development of the NZ ORCID Hub (a web application with a simple user interface) to allow organisations of all scales and technical resource capability to productively engage with ORCID.
What are the benefits of joining the Consortium?
Consortium members gain the benefit of premium ORCID membership, including the ability to request, and act on, permission to read and write to the profiles of their researchers. Premium membership also provides monthly organisational analytic reports, together with a range of benefits.
More detail can be found on the ORCID pages for funders and research organisations.
Members can also develop their own ORCID system integrations and receive support from us, as consortium lead, or use the NZ ORCID Hub to interact with ORCID records.
How long is MBIE committing to paying the consortium fee?
The work programme agreement between the Ministry and the Society was initially for two years and was then extended for a further two years. The consortium is currently funded until 30 June 2024, and the Ministry has indicated an intention to support the Consortium long-term. Should Government cease to fund the consortium, and if no other agency is able to provide support, the Consortium would dissolve, whereupon members would relinquish their membership benefits.
How does my organisation become a consortium member?
Contact the Royal Society Te Apārangi at orcid@royalsociety.org.nz. If eligible to join, you will be asked to fill out and sign an accession agreement (example) and provide names and contact details for a main and a technical contact for your organisation. We will also support you in applying for an organisational ROR ID if applicable.
What are the Main Contact and the Technical Contact roles?
“The Main Contact indicated for each Consortium Member shall be the person who represents the Consortium Member for purposes of (i) notice under the ORCID License Agreement and ORCID’s bylaws and (ii) membership voting, and who otherwise acts on behalf of Consortium Member under the ORCID License Agreement and under ORCID’s bylaws.”; and
“The Technical Contact shall be the person responsible for managing the Member’s API Credential(s).”
These contact details will be posted to the Consortium Membership registry
Note: If an organisation opts to use the NZ ORCID Hub, the technical ability required of the Technical Contact is minimal and requires only the ability to manage email addresses and a spreadsheet.