This document discusses the ORCID project and its current status in China's academic publishing community. It conducted a survey of 289 people and found that while only 14% knew about ORCID, 90% were willing to register after learning about its benefits of linking researchers to activities and distinguishing them. The survey also found that duplicate Chinese names often cause confusion, and most respondents believe ORCID could help solve this issue. However, ORCID still has limited awareness in China currently.

1. Yan Shuai （ Tsinghua University Press ）
Cheng Pengjun (Beijing Forestry University)
ORCID: a project still new to
China’s scholarly publishing
community

2. ORCID: a project still new to
China’s scholarly publishing
community
Yan Shuai （ Tsinghua University Press ）
Shuai Yan
S Yan
Yan S

3. ORCID in China’s academic publishing
China needs ORCID project: confusion of
Chinese names
The recognition of ORCID in China: a
questionnaire survey

4. The basic aims of ORCID project
1. Provides a persistent digital identifier that
distinguishes researchers from others
2. Supports automated linkages between
researchers and their professional activities

5. The high rate of duplicate Chinese names after
Romanized results in much confusion
1. Different order of family name and given name: comparison
with westerners’
Family name + given name (contrary to westerners’ names);
No middle name;
Regulated by the Scheme of Chinese Phonetic Alphabets
(Chinese Pinyin) in the 1950s-1970s by P.R. China as the rule
of Romanization of Chinese names
Why China needs ORCID

6. Why China needs ORCID
Compulsory in mainland China: family name preceding given
name
Some follow the western convention (e.g. submitting papers to
western journals, attending conferences): given name first
e.g. for single-syllable given name “Chen Li” ：
Difficult to tell which is family name, since both “Chen”
( 陈 ) and “Li” ( 李 ) are very common family names
Confusion of Chinese names

7. Why China needs ORCID
2. Chinese people have fewer commonly used family names.
Chinese people have thousands of family names, but only
about 500 are commonly used.
People with top three family names “Li” ( 李 ), “Wang”( 王 ) and “Zhang”
( 张 )
account for 21.3% of the total population (nearly 300 million).
During certain periods, people have similar taste for given names.
Confusion of Chinese names

8. Result: a very high rate of duplication of Chinese names.
e.g. 290 thousand people share the name “ ”张伟 (Zhang Wei)
In the field of library information, 21 names are shared by 59
well-known scholars, including 11 “ ”王芳 (Wang Fang)
Why China needs ORCID
Confusion of Chinese names

9. Why China needs ORCID
3. Chinese characters have four tunes.
After Romanized, the tunes disappear.
Results: one spelling can be referred to as too many
characters.
e.g., For the name “Wang Wei”:
the family name “Wang” can be “ 王” and “ 汪”；
the given name “Wei” can be 伟，玮，威，卫，巍，为
，
维，薇，
蔚，…
Totally, “Wang Wei” can by over 30 different
Confusion of Chinese names

10. Why China needs ORCID
In 2007, Gene D. Sprouse, the Chief Editor of American Physical
Society, decided to allow Asian authors to add their native
language names after their Romanized names, in order to reduce
the ambiguity.
Published 3 December 2007
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.76.230001
PACS number(s): 01.30. － y
Confusion of Chinese names

11. Misconduct of utilizing the ambiguity of Chinese
names for personal honors
•A scientific researcher named Lu Jun from a
university in Beijing was uncovered in 2012 for his
misconduct of cheating three other Lu Jun’s
curriculum vitae, academic background and
scientific achievements, which earned him the honor
of “Thousand Young Elites” and many research
grants.
•Lu Jun is a very common Chinese name.

12. How to effectively discriminate the fraud and prevent
such actions?
Very few methods have been designed so far for scientific
research management in China.
As designed to distinguish researcher from others, ORCID
project has been launched for almost two years. How about
its popularity in China?

13. Aim of the questionnaire survey:
To get an overall picture of recognition/popularity of
ORCID in China for promoting the development of
academic publishing and scientific research
Including 7 single choice questions and 1 multiple choice
question
Questionnaire survey about ORCID

14. Questionnaire survey about ORCID
1. Do you know ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID)?
( ) Know ( ) Know but not much ( ) Have no idea
2. What do you think will ORCID benefit us? (multiple choice)
( ) Link researchers and their professional activities, and distinguish them from
others
( ) Help to manage scientific and technological activities of researchers
( ) Help assess researchers by tracking their achievements
( ) Help avoid the ambiguity of personal contributions
( ) Help publishers in simplifying manuscript submission, accurately recognize
authors and quickly search peer reviewers
3. Do you have an ORCID ID of your own?
( ) Yes ( ) No
4. If you have not an ORCID yet, are you willing to register an ID to link you and your
research and publication information?
( ) Yes ( ) No

15. Questionnaire survey about ORCID
5. Did you experience the confusion of author identities in your work?
( ) Often ( ) Occasionally ( ) Not yet
6. Do you think that ORCID project can effectively solve the author identity
ambiguity?
( ) Yes ( ) No ( ) Uncertain
7. Given the confusion of Chinese names after Romanized, do you think that we
should promote the project of ORCID in China as soon as possible?
( ) Yes ( ) No
8. At present, what kind of job are you engaged in?
( ) Academic publishing
( ) Scientific research
( ) Scientific research management
( ) Human resources management
( ) Other

16. Questionnaire survey about ORCID
Lasting for 50 days from March 10 to April 30, 2014.
Responding questionnaires by three ways:
paper-based, webpage, mobile phone (WeChat)
293 responses received, 289 valid (99%).
paper-based 128 (44%)
webpage 87 (30%)
mobile phone 74 (26%)

17. Questionnaire survey about ORCID
Respondents covering most provinces of China
Most engaged in academic publishing (85%)

18. Questionnaire survey about ORCID
Only 42 (14%) respondents know about ORCID, while the
others know little (45%) or never heard of ORCID before (41%).

19. Questionnaire survey about ORCID
Among those 42 respondents who know about ORCID, only 10 (24%) have
registered and owned their ORCID ID.
Regarding the benefits that ORCID can bring to us, the respondents give
their answers ranked as:
(83%) link researchers and their professional activities, and distinguish
them from others
(80%) help publishers in simplifying manuscript submission, accurately
recognize authors and quickly search peer reviewers
(66%) help to manage scientific and technological activities of researchers
(60%) help assess researchers by tracking their achievements
(55%) help avoid the ambiguity of personal contributions

20. Questionnaire survey about ORCID
Although most of the respondents know little about
ORCID, after getting an understanding of it, they
show a high enthusiasm of embracing it.
259 (90%) are willing to register and get an ID, and
the rest still have some worries:
Leakage of personal information.
Will ORCID launchers make profits by charging researchers
in the future, just like Web of Science?

21. Questionnaire survey about ORCID
Only 58 (20%) respondents never encountered the difficulty in
discriminating ambiguous Chinese names; while the others are
often (28%) or occasionally (52%) confused by this issue.

22. Questionnaire survey about ORCID
When asked whether ORCID can solve the
confusion of duplicate Chinese names in academic
publishing, most (64%) are optimistic about ORCID
functions and believe that ORCID would be a good
solution.
Among those who often meet such problems, 73% choose
to believe in ORCID
However, for those who never encountered this problem,
only 47% have faith in ORCID, while the others are uncertain
about it.

23. Questionnaire survey about ORCID
As for whether we should popularize ORCID or
similar projects in China’s academic publishing
community, the answers of 88% of respondents are
Yes
Even those who never met confusion in duplicate Chinese
names, 78% think ORCID should be popularized as soon as
possible.

24. ORCID in China’s academic publishing
In general, popularity or influence of ORCID is still limited
in China’s academic publishing sphere, although China
has become the second largest country in the total
number of academic publications.
Nevertheless, we are rather optimistic about its future
development in China as more scholars are aware of the
benefits it brings to us.

25. Thank you!
Yan Shuai: yshuai@yahoo.com
Cheng Pengjun: pjcheng78@gmail.com