Recognising peer review with ORCID

Authors & Affiliation

Maaike Duine, Tom Demeranville, Ade Deane-Pratt and Josh Brown - ORCID

Abstract

Peer review is a fundamental component of the research lifecycle, but reviewers’ contributions can often go unrecognised in a process where anonymity remains commonplace. Open peer review represents an opportunity to increase the transparency of scholarly research process. ORCID introduced functionality during 2015 that enables peer review activities to be recorded on an ORCID record to facilitate the recognition and exchange of associated data. This functionality is increasing in popularity and is a key component of open peer review workflows.

For researchers, using their ORCID iD to enable connections with the organisations for which they perform reviews, raises the visibility of their efforts and contributions. For publishers, funders, associations, research institutions, peer review recognition services, and other organisations involved in review, asking reviewers for their ORCID iD and embedding it in workflows helps streamline processes, improve the management of reviewer databases, and provide reviewers with public – and discoverable – acknowledgement of their service.

It is possible to acknowledge the full range of peer review contributions, from double blind to open. ORCID follows the CASRAI Peer Review Services data profile developed by the Peer Review Services Working Group. A citation combines three elements: information about the reviewer, about the organization sponsoring the review, and about the review itself. Importantly, each of these components involves a persistent identifier making them referenceable by other identified entities utilised within scholarly communications.