What's Your Name?

The massive growth in adacemic publishing in the last ten years has made it difficult for individual researchers to stand out, especially if you've got a common name; Web of Science lists 613 different J Smiths. You can be creative with your middle initial by being JX Smith, or stand out as the only J Smith in your institution. But what about when you move jobs, or if you change your name with marriage?

Publishers like ThomsonReuters and ProQuest have tried setting up resources like ResearchID, where researchers can establish unique IDs and showcase their work. But they have been held back by the old VHS vs. Betamax problem, with competing standards not being recognised by different publishers.

Now ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID has been launched, with the backing of all the major publishing companies. Its early days, so you can't create your profile yet, but lets hope that this effort gets traction and is accepted as an international standard.

Read more about it in Nature.