ORCID Advocacy Toolkit/What is Advocacy?

Advocacy is about influencing change by raising awareness, building support, and encouraging action. In the context of ORCID, advocacy means

  • promoting ORCID adoption
  • demonstrating ORCID benefits
  • helping stakeholders integrate ORCID effectively.

Effective advocacy often draws on established theories, such as:

  • Stakeholder Theory: Identifying and addressing the needs of different groups (e.g., researchers, administrators, funders).
  • Diffusion of Innovations: Understanding how new ideas (like ORCID) spread and tailoring messaging accordingly.
  • Framing Theory: Presenting ORCID in ways that resonate with different audiences.

Successful ORCID advocacy involves clear communication, evidence-based messaging, and practical support. Below is a list pf steps to successful advocacy with suggestions related to ORCID.

Steps to effective advocacy:

  1. Define your goals
  2. Understand your audience
  3. Build a sense of urgency
  4. Create a guiding coalition
  5. Develop a vision and strategy
  6. Craft the message
  7. Identify resources and gaps
  8. Plan and develop the campaign
  9. Enlist a volunteer group
  10. Empower broad-based action
  11. Generate short-term wins
  12. Anchor change in the culture
  13. Evaluate progress regularly

Source: Open Research Toolkit Module 11

When applied to ORCID, the cycle of advocacy could look like this:

Steps to effective advocacy Examples for ORCID advocacy / questions to ask Resources
1. Define your goals e.g. 80% of research staff is connected via Affiliation Manager implementation, 100% uptake in the whole institution, reach PGR community, connect 80% of CRIS users with ORCID for automated feed,...
2. Understand your audience Who needs to receive the message?

e.g. research staff, teaching staff, PGRs, PGTs are directly asked to do something, senior management, library colleagues, grant teams, research developers,... are stakeholders as it might affect their jobs - which reservations might each group have? What would they gain from the uptake?

ORCID Advocacy Toolkit/Audiences
3. Build a sense of urgency Consider deadlines such as e.g. REF, grant deadlines, fellowships, media events,... then communicate this urgency to steakholders
4. Create a guiding coalition If you are not working alone or with a pre-defined team, create a working group that will carry out the change. Include one leader and main point of contact, workers that do part of the implementation, e.g. one to do reporting, one to file researcher requests, and cheerleaders who will carry the change to their groups, e.g. committee members to give updates in senior meetings, one Liaison Librarian to update rest of team,...
5. Develop a vision and strategy Where is this going and which steps will bring us there? (Roadmap: goal from step 1, then identify how to get there, e.g. set up member portal, use affiliation manager, contact steakholders, get team together,...)

What will be different thanks to the implementation? (better reporting, prepared for REF policy changes, better service for researchers by setting up increased visibility, e.g. for collaboration) Engage senior leaders, existing groups (e.g. research committee) and embed in institutional policies

6. Craft the message e.g. benefits of ORCID for each involved group (use positive language)
7. Identify resources and gaps e.g. existing training sessions for researchers or postgrads that could include ORCID; any colleagues that need training, do a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis, see below
8. Plan and develop the campaign Methods (face-to-face; social media; print material; emails: newsletters, direct emails, mailing lists; digital screens) depending on audience type
9. Enlist a volunteer group e.g. you could establish ORCID champions - researchers willing to promote ORCID in their departments; Community of Practice for research supporting staff to get message across as one
10. Empower broad-based action Remove barriers through training and knowledge of ORCID to colleagues, making effective use of institutional systems (learning platforms, existing mandatory training,...)
11. Generate short-term wins Identify where you could reuse information from the ORCID record e.g. researcher web profiles, pre-filled forms, re-use publication lists or identify other researcher benefits like time-saving, avoiding duplication, increasing visiblity of outputs. Good to set incentives, like 'and Orchid for and ORCID'.
12. Anchor change in the culture Training for researcher staff and professional services; links with institutional policies; links with institutional processes e.g. staff reviews
13. Evaluate progress regularly Monitor ORCID member reports in Member Portal or from your institutional systems (CRIS, repository)

Example of SWOT analysis

Strengths
  • Institutional commitment – ORCID implementation aligns with the university’s open research strategy.
  • Technical infrastructure – Strong system integration enables efficient adoption.
  • Mandated use – Institutional policies support widespread uptake.
 Weaknesses
  • Resource-intensive setup – Initial integration required significant time and effort.
  • Training needs – Ongoing support is necessary to ensure consistent use.
  • Resistance to change – Some researchers were unfamiliar with ORCID or hesitant to engage.
Opportunities
  • Improved workflows – ORCID integration simplifies funding applications and reporting.
  • Researcher visibility – Persistent identifiers enhance recognition of contributions.
  • External collaboration – Working with funders and publishers encourages broader adoption.
 Threats
  • Technical challenges – System updates and interoperability issues may arise.
  • Policy dependence – Future changes in institutional priorities could impact commitment.
  • Varying engagement levels – Continuous advocacy is needed to maintain adoption.

Examples of advocacy integration in other events

Build into a range of Library workshops i.e. not a stand alone session about ORCID; users need a reason to attend the session beyond ORCID.

Examples include:

Raising Research Visibility (Leeds University Library)

Open Research (Leeds University Library)

Research Data Management (Leeds University Library)

Researcher Profiles and Metrics (University of Liverpool)

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