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: Define your goals Understand your audience Build a sense of urgency Create a guiding coalition Develop a vision and strategy Craft the message Identify resources and gaps Plan and develop the campaign Enlist a volunteer group Empower broad-based action Generate short-term wins Anchor change in the culture Evaluate progress regularly Source: Open Research Toolkit Module 11 When applied to ORCID, the cycle of advocacy could look like this: +Steps to effective advocacyExamples for ORCID advocacy / questions to askResources1. Define your goalse.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 audienceWho 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/Audiences3. Build a sense of urgencyConsider deadlines such as e.g. REF, grant deadlines, fellowships, media events,... then communicate this urgency to steakholders4. Create a guiding coalitionIf 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 strategyWhere 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 policies6. Craft the messagee.g. benefits of ORCID for each involved group (use positive language)7. Identify resources and gapse.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 below8. Plan and develop the campaignMethods (face-to-face; social media; print material; emails: newsletters, direct emails, mailing lists; digital screens) depending on audience type9. Enlist a volunteer groupe.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 one10. Empower broad-based actionRemove barriers through training and knowledge of ORCID to colleagues, making effective use of institutional systems (learning platforms, existing mandatory training,...)11. Generate short-term winsIdentify 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 cultureTraining for researcher staff and professional services; links with institutional policies; links with institutional processes e.g. staff reviews13. Evaluate progress regularlyMonitor 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)