ORCID at BC

Dear Colleagues,

Contemporary scholarship---ever more likely to cross disciplinary and national boundaries---accelerates broad dissemination of knowledge, but the proliferation of research outputs and products can make it difficult to distinguish authorship with certainty. The ORCID ID, a standard for identification of contributors in scholarly communication, is being integrated into Boston College systems to address this problem. ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a unique, persistent identifier that ensures that all your work is properly attributed to you. ORCID is a non-profit organization supported by a global network of institutions, including research organizations, publishers, funders, professional associations, and other stakeholders in the research ecosystem.

Boston College is pleased to offer all our researchers---faculty and students alike---an easy interface to register for an ORCID ID and connect it to your BC ID number, and we encourage your participation by using the new ORCID at BC application, bc.edu/orcid, also linked in the Agora Portal under the Other Services heading. When you register for an ORCID ID (a process that should take about one minute), you will receive a unique, persistent identifier that will endure throughout your career. It is not affected by name changes, cultural differences in name order, inconsistent abbreviations and formats, or use of different alphabets.

Your ORCID ID will:

• Distinguish your work from that of others in the field
• Allow you to create a profile that connects all of your publications, articles, datasets, and other scholarly outputs with your ID
• Associate any name variants you have used with your profile
• Automate reporting new publications in your Faculty Annual Report
• Give you control over what is made public, private, or visible only to trusted parties

Connecting the ORCID ID to your Boston College identity aids in building and sustaining a comprehensive profile of BC’s contributions to research and the international scholarly community.  It will also save time and increase accuracy in capturing data for other uses; you (or a “trusted” designate) will be able to pull data about your publications from ORCID directly into your Faculty Annual Report.

We would ask that you take advantage of the new ORCID at BC application.  You can create your ORCID ID there or connect an existing one to your BC ID number.

If you have questions or would like help in this process, you can learn more in this Guide to ORCID at BC or request assistance from your subject librarian.  This initiative is a collaborative effort of the Boston College Libraries, Information Technology Services, and the Provost’s Office. Thanks for all that you do to advance the University’s commitment to research and scholarship.

Respectfully,

David Quigley
Provost and Dean of Faculties

Thomas B. Wall
University Librarian

Michael Bourque
Vice President, Information Technology