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Major Society Chemistry Publishers Jointly Commit to Integration with ORCID

The commitment by these two global chemistry publishers will enable both societies to provide unambiguous designation of author names within chemistry and across the broader sciences

by American Chemical Society
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CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, AND WASHINGTON — The Royal Society of Chemistry and the Publications Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS) today (Nov. 28) each became signatories to the ORCID® Open Letter, reasserting the commitment of both organizations to enhancing the scholarly publishing experience for researchers worldwide who are involved in chemistry and allied fields. 

The commitment by these two global chemistry publishers to undertake new workflow integration with technology infrastructure provided by ORCID®, a not-for-profit organization that provides unique identifiers for researchers and scholars, will enable both societies to provide unambiguous designation of author names within chemistry and across the broader sciences. This partnership with ORCID® will resolve ambiguity in researcher identification caused by name changes, cultural differences in name presentation, and the inconsistent use of name abbreviations that is too often a source of confusion for those who must rely on the published scientific record.

By becoming signatories to the ORCID® Open Letter, these two major chemical societies are voicing their intent to collect ORCID® iDs for all submitting authors through use of the ORCID® API, and to display such identifiers in the articles published in their respective society journals. The integration of such activities within the publishers' workflows means authors will benefit from automated linkages between their ORCID® record and unique identifiers embedded within their published research articles, ensuring their contributions are appropriately recognized and credited.

During the publishing process, ACS and the Royal Society of Chemistry will automatically deposit publications to Crossref, which in turn will coordinate with ORCID® to link and update the publishing activity populated to authors' respective ORCID® profiles, thus attributing each published work to the correct researcher. Existing holders of an ORCID® iD will encounter a one-time prompt to grant permission for the linkage. If authors do not have an ORCID® iD, they can easily enroll without navigating away from the publishers' manuscript submission site. If users wish to revoke integrated ORCID® profile access at any time, they can elect to do so through their ACS, Royal Society of Chemistry, or ORCID® accounts.

Both ACS Publications and the Royal Society of Chemistry understand the importance of attributing accurately the scholarly contributions of research scientists in the context of their other professional activities. "ACS has supported ORCID® since the outset of the initiative," says Sarah Tegen, PhD, vice president of global editorial and author services at ACS Publications. "We are pleased now to align with the Royal Society of Chemistry in this endeavor, as both societies underscore our willingness not only to encourage and assist our respective authors in establishing their unique ORCID® profiles, but also to help tackle the broader challenge of researcher name disambiguation in the scholarly literature. With the integration of author ORCID® iDs in our publishing workflows, we will ensure that researchers receive proper credit for their accomplishments."

Emma Wilson, PhD, director of publishing at the Royal Society of Chemistry adds, "We have been a supporter of ORCID® since 2013, recognizing the benefits it brings to researchers; ORCID® can and will make a huge difference to our authors' ability to gain full credit for their work. ORCID® will also help researchers meet the requirements of their research funders—for example, a number of funders have already announced that all grant applicants must now include a researcher's ORCID® iD. A unified system that integrates and links research-related information with accurate and timely linkage to the publishing output of authors has the potential to simplify and speed up their grant applications—something we know is important to researchers."

"The ACS and the Royal Society of Chemistry have been long-standing supporters of ORCID®," says Laurel Haak, PhD, executive director at ORCID®. "We are pleased to see ORCID® integration into ACS and Royal Society of Chemistry Publications systems. This will be a substantial benefit to researchers in the chemistry community, both in improving search and discovery of research articles, and for attribution and recognition of researchers' contributions to the discipline."