Researcher Profiles: ORCID-enabled Research Catalogues on Apograf
The scientific publishing industry can be defined by its sheer scale and output; it operates across borders and disciplines, and the assurance of quality peer review is the backbone of its integrity. However, the reality is that, due to a lack of incentive and fair compensation, many reviews are substandard and cannot be held as a true stamp of authentication or quality. Publishers themselves have become an indication of credibility rather than the actual research content. Their position as the authority in the space is often to the detriment of important research issues and science as a whole.
As noted by their website, “ORCID is part of the wider digital infrastructure needed for researchers to share information on a global scale”. By offering a higher level of transparency and by putting researchers at the centre, ORCID is redistributing control and influence in the publishing space. The provision of a unique and persistent connection to all their work and contributions re-empowers researchers. This link is not only a means of identification but adds an invaluable amount of clarity and trust to the sharing of knowledge.
In conjunction with ORCID API, Apograf hopes to operate in this same vein. The development of Apograf was similarly motivated by the need to foster the proliferation of scientific knowledge and to put control back into the hands of scientists and researchers. Apograf provides researchers with a single platform to store, track and review their professional activities and work. Thanks to its integration, authors with an ORCID iD can upload and peer review work on the blockchain-enabled publishing platform. All of which is automatically included in their ORCID records.
Apograf has recently launched a new feature on its platform — Researcher Profiles. This feature allows authors and contributors to develop and establish a professional profile based on their entire body of work. If made public by the author, Apograf users can subscribe to notifications. Subscribers will receive an email alert whenever the author adds a new publication or updates any collections that they may have created.
To the wider community, an Apograf Researcher Profile provides an overview of a researcher’s professional and academic output and contributions throughout their career — from research interests and published work to achievements, grants and peer review activities. Beyond a store of publications, this feature allows researchers to increase their visibility as well as that of their work based entirely on its own merits rather than the favour of publishers that may lack impartiality.
The intention is to expand these capabilities to include the storage of raw data, presentations and any other related material. The transparency that comes with such a comprehensive catalogue on a single platform and the research registry afforded by ORCID only adds to the credibility of a researcher’s output as it is all easily accessed and verified.
