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How to connect to your ORCID profile

What is ORCID?

ORCID is an open, non-profit, community-driven effort to create and maintain a registry of unique researcher identifiers and a transparent method of linking research activities and outputs to these identifiers. For more information please go to: https://orcid.org/content/about-orcid.

Setting up the integration

First you need to connect your Figshare account to your ORCID account. You can do this straight from the ‘Profile’ link or from the ‘Integrations’ link available in your user icon dropdown (upper right part of the page). Click “Connect” and you’ll be sent off to ORCID to verify your account and then we can get started. You’ll then be presented with 3 options, all off by default.

Push data to my ORCID

This option creates a record in your ORCID account of any items that you publish on Figshare. It’s good to note that this will create a record using the base DOI only, versioned DOIs are omitted. The base DOI will always point to the latest version of your item. This long-requested functionality avoids the issue of significant duplicate entries within your ORCID account.

Please note: if you have a synchronization set up from a DOI provider like Datacite and you enable this option, there is a chance you’ll get duplicate records in your ORCID account.

This feature will only kick in for items created after the integration has been performed. Any existing items in your Figshare account will not be pushed using this method. If you need to get historic items into your ORCID account and they have not been captured by the existing Datacite integration, this will need to be done manually.

Pull data from my ORCID to my Figshare account 

This one is all about your Figshare profile and your profile only. Nothing imported here will interact with your My Data area (that’s where option 3 comes in).

This will import everything in your ORCID works section to the publications area of your Figshare profile. Unlike the previous setting, this will import everything BEFORE the integration was performed as well as anything created ongoing.

A list of publications will appear on the profile if this option is enabled with ORCID. Publications can be added manually as well.

Create draft records from my ORCID data 

After the integration has occurred, any new records created within the works section of your ORCID account will automatically create a new draft metadata record within your My Data area. We’ll pull in as much available metadata as we can, as well as creating the metadata record with the DOI of the original object.

Once a new draft item has been created from this integration, you’ll get two kinds of notifications: an email to your account email address and a notification within the platform (coming October 2021). You can then choose to add a file for this record, such as an open access version of a publication, and any additional metadata or delete the draft record if it’s not needed.

ORCID integration FAQs

Won’t things get stuck in a loop?

No, these items won’t be reimported.

Will things continually create metadata records if I delete them as I don’t want to make a repository version for that work?

No, things will only be imported once. If you delete them, it won’t happen again.

Are there any other implications of connecting my ORCID?

Nothing new, but it seems a good time to reiterate the current benefits of having an ORCID and connecting it to your Figshare account:

  • Your ORCID is part of the item’s metadata
  • Your ORCID is sent along with additional metadata when minting a DOI to a supporting partner such as Datacite
  • You are searchable by your ORCID within Figshare
  • Disambiguates your outputs to help with the I (interoperability) in FAIR 
  • Your ORCID is displayed on your Figshare author profile page

Do I have to enable all three options? What if I don’t enable any?

You don’t have to enable any of the options. You’ll still get all the great benefits listed above if you enable none of them. You can choose to enable any combination of the three; they all will work independently of each other.

If I am using my institution’s Figshare and it doesn’t allow the creation of items with a custom DOI, can I still create metadata records?

You can, but these will be created without the original published DOI. They will be published with a new DOI / handle based on your institution’s policies. If you are unsure, speak to your institutional administrator about this.

What if I’ve already connected my ORCID to my Figshare account?

All of the benefits you currently enjoy under “Are there any other implications of connecting my ORCID?” outlined above that you get now will still continue to work without you doing anything. For any of the new functionality to work, we’ll need new permissions from you. This means reauthorizing the ORCID application and away you go.

How frequently are updates sent to ORCID from Figshare and vice versa?

With the power of webhooks, updates happen really quickly in a matter of minutes.

If you require any assistance, please submit a support ticket.

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