Skip to main content

Integrating ORCID Author Identifiers

To support precise tracking and management of individual researcher portfolios (preventing name ambiguity or incorrect institutional affiliations), EcoLit integrates the ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) standard.

1. What is ORCID and its Role?​

ORCID is a unique 16-digit non-proprietary identifier (e.g., 0000-0002-1825-0097) assigned to researchers worldwide.

In EcoLit, ORCID serves as:

  • A unique key to identify authors in PostgreSQL (paper_authors table) and Neo4j (Author node).
  • A mechanism to group and display a researcher's portfolio accurately without mixing up researchers with identical names (e.g., "Nguyen, V.").
  • A connection to sync metadata from the author's public profile on the international ORCID registry to the local database.

2. Profile Sync Workflow via ORCID​

Users with the Researcher role can sync any author profile (or their own) by following these steps:

  1. Navigate to the Personal Profiles or the author details page.
  2. Enter the 16-digit ORCID identifier (e.g., 0000-0003-1234-5678).
  3. Click the Đồng bộ hồ sơ (Sync Profile) button.
  4. The system will spawn a background worker that:
    • Queries the ORCID API for biography data: name, institutional affiliations history, and funded research grants.
    • Cross-references OpenAlex and Crossref to download all papers (works) where this ORCID is listed as an author.
    • Updates the local PostgreSQL database.

3. Neo4j Knowledge Graph Connections​

Once synchronization completes, EcoLit maps the metadata to the Neo4j Academic Knowledge Graph:

(Author {orcid: '0000-0003-1234-5678'})-[:AUTHORED]->(Paper)
(Author)-[:AFFILIATED_WITH]->(Institution)
(Paper)-[:PUBLISHED_IN]->(Venue)

When exploring the Knowledge Graph, you can click on an Author node to:

  • View the co-authorship network representing frequent research partners.
  • View charts showing the topic distribution of the author's work.
  • Locate institutions associated with the author.
  • Extract text evidence clips (Finding nodes) taken from the author's publications.