Contacts are required both by the Jisc support service and ORCID to represent the consortium member (the institution) and act on their behalf. There are different roles and types of communication. The three main contacts types are:

• Main contact
• Technical contact
• Licencee

There are other types of contact which may be in your institution

• Invoice Contact
• Comms Contact
• Other Contact

Different people may need to be named for each role. The appropriate person may depend on your institution, how different support services are set up, and which services are contributing to ORCID implementation. Contacts can come from the library, research office or IT, for example. The following questions and answers are intended to explain what the contacts are used for, to help you choose the right person.

A named contact is required as the key person who is able to handle and act on communications regarding ORCID at your institution and who can be relied on to respond. The main contact represents the consortium member (the institution) in matters relating to licensing responsibilities and membership privileges (like voting) and is able to act on behalf of the consortium member.

The main contact will receive official correspondence from ORCID and Jisc. This includes the monthly newsletter from ORCID (containing links to the institution’s statistics); any important announcements from ORCID e.g. relating to security or service issues; event invitations from Jisc; notifications of any new initiatives or service changes from both Jisc and ORCID.

In particular, the main contact will receive communication from ORCID for the purposes of voting rights associated with the institutional membership of ORCID. Although the voting contact is usually the main contact they can actually delegate this responsibility to another named contact if they wish to do so.

The main contact needs to be able to handle all questions regarding progress of ORCID implementation at your institution (either by answering directly, or by referring the query on). They need to be able to report which institutional systems are connecting to the ORCID API and the types of transactions allowed in the institution. They may be responsible for advocacy of ORCID to other staff, for business planning around ORCID, or reporting on ORCID use internally or to external bodies. They will be asked to engage with ORCID and Jisc regarding any initiatives (such as Collect and Connect) or any evaluation processes (e.g. surveys).

Types of communication that the main contact will receive:

• Monthly ORCID newsletter
• Emails from ORCID about voting
• Emails from Jisc about events run by Jisc for the consortium
• Surveys
• Requests or information on any new initiatives
• Information on onboarding on becoming a member

Example job titles for those who take on the role of main contact:
Research Data Manager, Content Delivery Manager, Head of Library Research Services, Library Digital Service Manager, Research Support Librarian, Library Systems Manager, Open Access & Research Repository Specialist, Senior Policy Advisor, Research & Innovation, Research Information Manager, Head of Scholarly Communications Management, Research Asset Management Project Lead, Head of Research Performance, Impact & Integrity

When an organisation joins ORCID, they build an integration to use the ORCID API, or connect using a vendor system (like a CRIS). To access the API, credentials are needed (an ID and ‘secret’/password). The technical contact will be in charge of requesting the credentials, managing the API keys for applications and describing the integration, as well as acting as main contact for any technical queries from ORCID. For example, they would be contacted about any downtime, changes to the API, suspicious activity or unusual patterns of activity if detected, etc.

The right technical contact will depend on the institutional set-up and infrastructure.

For institutions that are using the CRIS or repository to connect to ORCID, the person who has responsibility for those systems is sometimes named as the technical contact. Alternatively, institutions building a home-grown integration usually name the developer who is developing the integration. In both these cases it could instead be a senior person or IT manager who oversees the various IT systems who takes on the role.

The technical contact will be subscribed to the ORCID newsletter. It is strongly recommended that technical contacts should also subscribe to the ORCID-API users group, where announcements about changes and planned upgrades to the API are made and where assistance from others using the API can be requested. The main point of contact for any technical queries for members of the Jisc UK ORCID consortium should always be the Jisc helpdesk help@jisc.ac.uk as a starting point, and queries will be escalated as needed.

Example communications to technical contacts:

• Advance notice of changes or upgrades to the API
• Requests for information on the type and version of systems connecting to ORCID
• Any queries about credentials

This is the person with access to the Jisc Collections ordering system. They will be the one to initiate the order, process payments and deal with invoices.

As the subscription is annual, the payment will need to be processed once a year, unless the institution chooses to pay upfront for the remainder of the agreement period. The ORCID membership commences once the order is completed.

The licencee therefore enables the membership to commence at the outset but then hands over to the main contact. They will be contacted by the Jisc support service on completion of the order and asked for the main contact details for ORCID at the institution. It is important that the licencee hands over promptly to the main contact who can handle further communications and actions that are needed. Some requirements and actions are part of the licence agreement, therefore there is an obligation to work with Jisc support to complete this step efficiently.