ORCID integration
GCRIS is a Current Research Information System (CRIS) built on the open-source DSpace 9.2 platform. This page describes how an institution running GCRIS connects it to ORCID so that researchers can authenticate their ORCID iD, pull data from their ORCID record into their GCRIS profile, and let the institution assert employment, education, and research outputs on their ORCID record.
The integration is implemented on top of the DSpace ORCID module. All interaction with ORCID uses the institution's own ORCID Member API credentials.
Why enable ORCID in GCRIS
Connecting GCRIS to ORCID gives the institution and its researchers several benefits:- Researchers no longer need to re-enter affiliation, publication, and funding data in multiple systems. Information already in GCRIS flows to their ORCID record automatically.- The institution asserts its own staff and student affiliations on ORCID records. Validated employment and education entries carry the institution as the source and can be trusted by funders, publishers, and other scholarly services.- GCRIS can read from ORCID to discover new publications and keep researcher profiles up to date without manual intervention.- Downstream reporting (national assessment, EuroCRIS exports, open-access compliance) benefits from stable persistent identifiers for people and organisations.
What the integration does
Once configured and authorised by the researcher, GCRIS:- Collects an authenticated ORCID iD and the permissions needed to read from and write to the researcher's ORCID record.- Displays the ORCID iD on the researcher's GCRIS profile according to ORCID display guidelines.- Reads data from the researcher's ORCID record to help populate their GCRIS profile and discover new activity.- Writes institution-asserted employment and education affiliations to the researcher's ORCID record with ROR-identified organisation, department, role or degree, and dates.- Writes works to the researcher's ORCID record for publications held in GCRIS with external identifiers.- Writes funding items to ORCID when the institution manages projects in GCRIS.
Prerequisites
Before configuring GCRIS, the institution must obtain an ORCID Member API client. Public API credentials are not sufficient for writing to ORCID records.
1. Register a Member API client at https://orcid.org/content/register-client-application-0. ORCID will issue a Client ID and a Client Secret.
2. For non-production GCRIS instances, register a separate Sandbox client at https://info.orcid.org/register-a-client-application-sandbox-member-api/. Sandbox and production credentials are not interchangeable; the same credentials must not be active in more than one GCRIS instance at the same time.
3. Request the following scopes:
- /authenticate
- /read-limited
- /activities/update
- /person/update
Register the redirect URI at ORCID
When a researcher authenticates their ORCID iD, ORCID redirects back to GCRIS to complete the flow. redirect URI registered on the ORCID client must be:
https://<your-gcris-domain>/server/api/authn/orcid
Example for Izmir Institute of Technology:
https://gcris.iyte.edu.tr/server/api/authn/orcid
This is configured at orcid.org under the institution's client account and cannot be set inside GCRIS. If a researcher sees a redirect_uri_mismatch error, the URI registered at ORCID does not match the GCRIS base URL exactly.
Configure GCRIS
The ORCID module is configured in dspace/config/modules/orcid.cfg on the GCRIS backend server.
Production (ORCID live)
orcid.domain-url = https://orcid.org
orcid.api-url = https://api.orcid.org/v3.0
orcid.public-url = https://pub.orcid.org/v3.0
orcid.redirect-url = ${dspace.server.url}/api/authn/orcid
orcid.application-client-id = <your production Client ID>
orcid.application-client-secret = <your production Client Secret>
orcid.scope = /authenticate
orcid.scope = /read-limited
orcid.scope = /activities/update
orcid.scope = /person/update
orcid.synchronization-enabled = true
Researcher workflow
1. The researcher signs in to GCRIS and opens their profile.
2. They click "Connect your ORCID iD". GCRIS redirects them to ORCID.
3. On the ORCID authorisation screen they review the scopes requested by the institution and click "Authorize access".
4. ORCID redirects back to GCRIS. The ORCID iD now appears on the researcher's GCRIS profile, and GCRIS stores the access token for that researcher.
5. From the ORCID preferences on the profile, the researcher can choose which categories (publications, projects, profile) are synchronised to their ORCID record.
Administrators cannot authorise ORCID on behalf of a researcher. The researcher must sign in to GCRIS and complete the authorisation themselves.
Employment
For each researcher affiliated with the institution, GCRIS writes an institution-asserted employment item that includes:
- Organisation name, city, country, and ROR identifier
- Department
- Role title
- Start date (at least year)
- End date, updated with at least the departure year when the researcher leaves
Example (Izmir Institute of Technology, employment put-code 39902249):
<employment:employment visibility="public"
xmlns:common="http://www.orcid.org/ns/common"
xmlns:employment="http://www.orcid.org/ns/employment">
<common:department-name>Library</common:department-name>
<common:role-title>Library Director</common:role-title>
<common:start-date>
<common:year>2005</common:year>
<common:month>12</common:month>
</common:start-date>
<common:organization>
<common:name>Izmir Institute of Technology</common:name>
<common:address>
<common:city>Izmir</common:city>
<common:country>TR</common:country>
</common:address>
<common:disambiguated-organization>
<common:disambiguated-organization-identifier>
https://ror.org/03stptj97
</common:disambiguated-organization-identifier>
<common:disambiguation-source>ROR</common:disambiguation-source>
</common:disambiguated-organization>
</common:organization>
</employment:employment>
The item is written as source "Izmir Institute of Technology" on the researcher's ORCID record.
Education
Education affiliations follow the same mechanism, written to /v3.0/{orcid}/education. For students and alumni, GCRIS writes:
- Organisation name, city, country, and ROR identifier of the awarding institution
- Department (e.g. the awarding school or faculty)
- Role title (the degree, e.g. "PhD in Molecular Biology and Genetics")
- Start date and end date (at least year)
As with employment, items are written by the institution and carry the institution as the source on the researcher's ORCID record.
Updating affiliation end dates
When a researcher leaves the institution, GCRIS updates the existing employment item on the researcher's ORCID record rather than creating a new one. The update sets at a minimum the year the researcher left, satisfying the ORCID requirement that affiliation end dates be kept current.
The same approach applies to education: when a student completes or discontinues a programme, the existing education item is updated with the end year.
Works
For each publication in GCRIS, the integration writes a work item mapped from GCRIS metadata to ORCID fields:
- dc.title → title
- dc.description.abstract → short-description
- dc.date.issued → publication-date
- dc.language.iso → language
- dc.relation.ispartof → journal-title
- dc.type → work type
- dc.contributor.author, dc.contributor.editor → contributors
- dc.identifier.doi → DOI
- dc.identifier.scopus → Scopus EID
- dc.identifier.pmid → PubMed
- dc.identifier.isi → Web of Science UT
- dc.identifier.issn → ISSN
- dc.identifier.isbn → ISBN
- handle → handle
Funding
If the institution manages projects in GCRIS, funding items are written to the Funding section of the researcher's ORCID record with title, type, external identifiers, description, and start/end dates.
Testing the integration using ORCID Sandbox
ORCID provides a sandbox environment at https://sandbox.orcid.org for safe end-to-end testing. GCRIS supports it by overridicid.cfg (see the Sandbox section above).
Recommended test flow:
1. Register a sandbox Member API client and record the redirect URI of the test instance against it.
2. Create a test ORCID iD on sandbox.orcid.org (sandbox accounts are independent of production ORCID).
3. In the test GCRIS instance, log in as a researcher user, open the profile, and click "Connect your ORCID iD".
4. Confirm the browser is redirected to https://sandbox.orcid.org/oauth/authorize?...client_id=APP-... — if it redirects to orcid.org (production), the sandbox URLs in orcid.cfg are not in effect.
5. Grant permission on the sandbox ORCID screen; verify the iD appears on the researcher's GCRIS profile on return.
6. Trigger an employment or work write and verify the item appears in the sandbox ORCID record with the test client listed as the source.
Never point a non-production GCRIS instance at ORCID live. Non-production tokens stored against sandbox credentials cannot authenticate against production ORCID.
Operational notes
- Keep production and sandbox credentials strictly separated. The same Client ID must not be used in more than one GCRIS instance at the same time to avoid duplicate or deleted items.
- When a researcher leaves the institution, update the end date on the existing ORCID employment or education item rather than creating a new entry.
- Access tokens issued by ORCID are stored in the orcid_token table of the GCRIS database, linked to the researcher's profile item. Token values are never displayed in the UI or written to logs.
- If export stops working after a backend upgrade, verify that orcid.cfg under dspace/config/modules still carries the institution's Client ID and Client Secr — DSpace upgrades can reset the file to defaults.
Support
For questions about the GCRIS ORCID integration, contact info@researchecosystems.com.