Why ORCID and Higher Ed Identity and Access Management (IAM)

ORCID Outreach, Chicago, May 21, 2014Keith Hazelton, Internet2, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison

• ORCID adoption team—level of coordination with campus Identity and Access Management (IAM) team

• Look at possibilities and limitations of two extremes– No coordination or integration– High level of coordination with joint planning and

execution

ORCID Adoption Projects: Contrasting Models

• Why this might be the case– Campus IAM infrastructure is low on maturity scale– IAM team has few resources for collaborative projects– Lack of buy-in from IAM leadership

• This is a viable path but one with limitations

ORCID Project in Isolation from Campus IAM

• A campus-based clinical and translational research Center

• Authors of research publications include– Campus researchers– Practicing MDs at associated Clinics where clinical trials

are run• Center wants all authors to have ORCID iDs – carried in the Center’s research network system– Included when manuscripts are submitted to external

journals for publication– Included in grant proposals to NIH, CTSA

Hypothetical Single-unit ORCID Initiative

• Center obtains ORCID membership• Has to maintain a registry of

researchers/clinicians/authors– Including (automated) registration processes– Assignment of a local registry identifier to each person– Assignment of ORCID iDs– Storage of ORCID iDs as an additional data element in

the registry• Has to provision ORCID iDs into VIVO or other

researcher networks

Hypothetical Single-unit ORCID Initiative

• Decide on the ORCID assignment/intake process– E.g., Is it all in-coming faculty?– Plus all entering grad students?

• Build the assign/claim/register process for ORCID iDs to feed directly to the IAM “master data” store, aka “identity registry” as an additional person data element

• What does a mature IAM infrastructure provide?

Coordinated IAM / ORCID Team Project

• For each individual carrying a relationship to the campus, the IAM infrastructure provides– An institutionally maintained single digital identity– To which the individual’s possibly multiple roles and

affiliations are linked– A unique campus identifier that can be cross-walked to

various IT system-specific identifiers• IAM also provides a service to manage permissions for

access to variety of resources to individuals or groups– Management can be delegated to the appropriate role

Campus IAM: Characteristics of a Mature System

• Build processes to verify the association of – ORCID iD xxx with IAM person ID yyy– Carry verification status in metadata– Best done by a self-service process

• Authenticate with campus-issued credential• Once in the application, send user off to ORCID to

authorize release of their “official” ORCID iD to the app.• If the two match, mark as verified

Coordinated IAM / ORCID Team Project

• How do other campus centers or units leverage the IAM-registered ORCID iDs?

• 1) Provide an identifier cross-walk service to other campus systems

• 2) Promote app design where users authenticate with campus credentials and the login service sends back ORCID iD along with other attributes– This can be extended to external services via federation

(InCommon)• In either case, local systems can associate their native

identifiers with corresponding ORCID iDs

Coordinated IAM / ORCID Team Project

• Extends readily to support additional uses of ORCID• E.g., Initial adoption by Clinical/Translational Research

Center• Follow-on projects:– Integrate with an institutional repository project– Integrate with a faculty effort reporting system– Integrate with research and sponsored programs services– Integrate with data management services

Advantages of a Coordinated Approach

• By offering IAM as a shared service, frees up local unit staff to focus on mission-supporting services

• In cases where one individual has more than one ORCID iD– Resolution process done once in IAM identity registry– Facilitates provisioning of single resolved ORCID across

distributed data repositories • Investments are leveraged: Enhancements to ORCID

support in shared IAM infrastructure are available to all participating local units

Advantages of a Coordinated Approach

• Any cross-unit coordinated approach will bring challenges in communication and governance

• The long-run benefits make it worth the effort

Advantages of a Coordinated Approach