Application of new information technologies to scholarly journals: ORCID, CrossMark, and FundRef

Abstract

Recently, there has been a rapid adoption of a variety of information technologies to scholarly journal publishing. For example, the digital object identifier application launched in 2000 has become an international standard of journal networks. In 2012, Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) and CrossMark were launched. Further, FundRef began its service in 2013. Since most medical journals from Korea are published by academic societies themselves, editors should understand these projects and apply them to their journals. ORCID is a unique identifier of every researcher and contributor in the world. In Korea, there are particularly many people who have the same name, and hence, a unique identifier becomes mandatory. Any researcher can register with ORCID and receive a unique ID for life for free. CrossMark is an update system for checking the final version of a paper as there may be errata, corrigenda, retractions, or other changes. Readers can determine whether the paper that they are viewing is the final version or not by clicking on the CrossMark logo. Likewise, FundRef provides a standard method for reporting the funder’s name and the grant number for a paper. Once the funding agencies from Korea are registered with FundRef, authors can provide the funder and the grant number information to the publisher. To apply ORCID, CrossMark, and FundRef easily, the production of a Journal Article Tag Suite extensible markup language file is mandatory. Owing to the advanced level of information technology in Korea, it should be possible to apply ORCID, CrossMark, and FundRef at a very reasonable cost. Therefore, now is the time for journal editors to introduce the above mentioned standards to journal publishing.