ORCID & the Panoptivarsity: Resistance & �Support for the Monitored Academy amongst �Faculty and Librarians in the Irish �Technological University Sector

FRANK HOUGHTON

SOCIAL SCIENCES CONNEXIONS

TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY OF THE SHANNON

LIMERICK, IRELAND

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Thanks:�Dr Allen Foster - Aber

ORCID-��Open �Researcher and�Contributor�ID��xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx

THE LITERATURE IS OVERWHELMINGLY POSITIVE TOWARDS ORCID NUMBERS

PERSISTENT IDENTIFIER (PID) (MOVING)�NAME DISAMBIGUITY �NAME CHANGES (MARRIAGE/ DIVORCE/ TRANSITIONING)�AUTOMATED ATTRIBUTION�INTEROPERABLE�SINGLE SIGN-ON�FREE

NEGATIVE PERSPECTIVES ARE THINNER ON THE GROUND:��“NO-BRAINER”��“I CAN’T CONCEIVE WHY ANYONE WOULD WANT TO OPT OUT OF SOMETHING THAT SOUNDS SO USEFUL” (HoD)

IS IT REALLY A PROBLEM?��LATEST IN A LONG LIST OF SUCH ATTEMPTS ��MORE SOFTWARE/ PASSWORDS TO LEARN & KEEP UPDATED��BENEFITTING PUBLISHERS��MANDATORY!!!

FUNDERS TRACKING OUTPUTS��JOKE ORCID ACCOUNTS��GHOST ACCOUNTS/ PAPER MILLS/ SHARING AN ORCID��INSTITUTIONS/ ORGANISATIONS��MISTAKES

EMPTY SHELLS��THE RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN��ANONYMOUS PUBLICATIONS/ PSEUDONYMS ��TIME-CONSUMING BUREAUCRACY ��LIBRARY BURDEN

NEARING RETIREMENT��DISCIPLINARY DIFFERENCES��FUNCTIONALITY��CYBER THEFT- PASSWORDS��EVALUATION

IRELAND��UNIVERSITY EDUCATION LARGELY FAITH BASED��TCD�ST PATRICK’S COLLEGE MAYNOOTH�UCD (CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND)�EXCEPTIONS:�UCC/ UCG (QUEEN’S COLLEGES) �

IRELAND��OPERATED (& OPERATES) A BINARY 2-TIER HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM ��TRADITIONAL UNIVERSITIES (PLUS UL & DCU)��RTCs… INSTITUTES OF TECHNOLOGY (IoTs)… TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITIES (TUs)

IoTs TUs (2021)��UK 1992 Polys into Unis��IoTs:�Apprenticeships to PhDs�Wider social spectrum�More diverse learning needs�More applied/ vocational focus�Ladder approach

METRICS��% OF STAFF WITH PHDS�% OF POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH STUDENTS��PROVE RESEARCH RECORD��WHOLE IoT SECTOR - ORCID ID

WIDER BACKGROUND�-GROWING MANAGERIALISM�-NEO-LIBERAL UNIVERSITY�-STUDENTS AS CONSUMERS�-METRICS/ LEAGUE TABLES�-COMMODIFICATION OF KNOWLEDGE�-JOURNAL ARTICLE AS A UNIVERSAL ‘PRODUCT’ THAT CAN BE MEASURED �-INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS £ $ €

MARX FOUCAULT��

RESEARCH PROJECT��EXPLORE ATTITUDES TO/ PERCEPTIONS OF ORCID IN THE IRISH IoT/TU SECTOR��(SENIOR) LIBRARIANS�LECTURERS��MIXED METHODS�ONLINE SURVEY & INTERVIEWS

STUDY ONE: ONLINE SURVEY���12 (SENIOR) LIBRARIANS��114 LECTURERS

STUDY TWO: INTERVIEWS���5 (SENIOR) LIBRARIANS��10 LECTURERS

SENIOR LIBRARIANS

IDENTITY CLARITY

CLASSICAL LITERATURE

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It is an efficient way of identifying researchers

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the identifiers are unique so no confusion with similarly named persons

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LINKAGES

CLASSICAL LITERATURE

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ORCID IDs are being promoted for use with the PURE Research Information Management System which is currently being implemented.

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It allows authors to connect their ORCID id with other research identifiers such as Scopus ID and ResearcherID.

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PUBLISHER ORIENTATION

CLASSICAL LITERATURE

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From the publisher respect first of all, that they have the right author… So this then allows them to aggregate, you know, correct information about who was submitting to their to their journal so they can check your Scopus ID… or your other IDs…

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The publishers… just keeping people identifiable so that they're, you know, your name isn't unique. Your emails change. Your contact details change. Your country changes. I mean you can move internationally.

MANDATORY ADOPTION

CLASSICAL LITERATURE

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Maybe its controversial, but I think it’s probably not a bad thing [if ORCID were mandatory... Like I think, you know, we're publicly funded. So we do have an obligation to be… working on a certain level, you know. What I mean is to be publishing and to be… our industry has to be industry focused. So I think we do need to have strong metrics around that. I don't know if that's the popular or the right answer, or the wrong answer… I think as you know something that's publicly funded… it's taxpayers money, we do need to be using it responsibly. And I've no problem with having strong metrics around that, and making sure we have the best people doing the right job.

FACULTY

MYSTERY

CLASSICAL LITERATURE

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• No idea what an ORCID ID is!!
• How come I have never heard of it?
• I don't know what an Orcid ID is, sorry i can’t be of more help.

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EXTERNAL PRESSURE

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• I use ORCID because my organisation said I had to.
• We were encouraged to set them up by head of school.
• It was a request from my academic department and seemed to be a requirement for the Technological University application the organisation was undergoing.

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WORKLOAD

CLASSICAL LITERATURE

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• This is very time consuming to maintain.
• Another thing to remember!
• Another forum to keep up to date

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SECURITY

CLASSICAL LITERATURE

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• Yes, I have concerns about transparency and security of my personal data and who has access to it.

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CLASSICAL LITERATURE

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• For women it can be a risk to publicise which conferences you will frequent on a yearly basis, especially those with stalkers (doesn’t happen often but it does happen) or those who know certain people (men) will look for them at conferences/events (who may be annoying the women with unwanted attention, infrequent but it does happen). This is something I am still working out, how much information to publicly publish about my whereabouts/annual conferences (I had a stalker who I can see is regularly looking at my LinkedIn page, but I can’t see who looks at my ORCID profile).

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SELF-MARKETING

CLASSICAL LITERATURE

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• It is a one stop shop. It's a receptacle for the things that if somebody needs to know about me professionally, I can say go and have a look at my orchid profile… And I also feel like half of this game of academia is this self-promotional aspect of ‘look at me, look at how fabulous I am’. You know, if you look around academic Twitter… if I had a dime for every tweet that was ‘Delighted to have my paper accepted by…’ like, everybody's delighted.

SURVEILLANCE: 1 MANAGEMENT

CLASSICAL LITERATURE

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• I suppose there is a little bit of a Big Brother aspect to me

• I suppose if it's there, it's like any information that's out there, if it can be used to beat you with like, you wouldn't want to put it out there.

SURVEILLANCE: 2 PEERS

CLASSICAL LITERATURE

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• yeah, I mean, I think it does have potential for peer monitoring of publications

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• It would allow me first of all to compare what my orchid page is in comparison to my peer group in terms of its improvements over time.

SURVEILLANCE: 3 SELF

CLASSICAL LITERATURE

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• I think… there's a lot of positives in it. I guess it's a way of keeping yourself kind of updated and aware so that you could review it and say “Oh, what have I done in the last year?” So it's kind of like your own like management review.
• You know, like what exactly have you done? …You know, it's my own standard of what have you done in the last six months? “What have you done?” You know, so I have to it's… a… self-regulation thing

RESIGNATION

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• It's a tool of evaluation, but… if they’re using it to evaluate, they would use some other tool anyway. I think it's a tool, and tools are going to be used and abused, and if they didn't have this it would just be something else.
• This is where the world's going? Isn't it? You know, like we're all out there on social media, whatever. At this stage… it's a change from the way things used to be. And I can see how someone of my generation has struggled with that alright. But that's just the way the world's gone.

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MINIMAL ENGAGEMENT

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• It [having an ORCID ID] was presented to myself and all other colleagues as one of the personal requirements to allow the TU process to happen… we completed that and since then I've ignored it. And so it is blank other than the minimum required details which we were told to deliver, which I presume was two years ago at this stage.
• Um, in a nutshell… I got one [an ORCID ID] because I was told to get one in… the transfer to TU. I set myself up and I haven't touched it since.

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POST-COLONIAL IMITATION

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• Well, I'd say… the Irish sector always looks towards Britain for benchmarking metrics, standards of excellence, recruitment
• You know, I'm thinking… Ireland isn't particularly original with this, it always looks at what the UK is doing, you know it's… I suppose it's a legacy of colonialism. You know I've seen it as well in Finland… they used to be ruled by Sweden… and if it's good enough for England, it'll be good enough for us.

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ONE SIZE FITS ALL

CLASSICAL LITERATURE

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• I think they see it [ORCID] as a one-size-fits-all capture tool. That's the one that's in the marketplace, We haven't as a sector captured what I think we all feel is our flavour of research. That’s where we are at the moment... Are we teachers? Are we instructors? Are we trainers? Some of us like to research and teach. Some of us just like to research, and some of us just like to teach… That's something I think the sector hasn't addressed. So the ORCID system won't fit that, and it's not fitting it. But unfortunately there's no other tool.

FOUCAULDIAN ANALYSIS

CLASSICAL LITERATURE

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• Power/ Knowledge
• Surveillance/ Control
• Regulated Bodies / Resignation
• Resistance
• Self-surveillance
• Sous-surveillance
• Panopticommodification
• Panoptivarsity

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THANK YOU FOR LISTENING��ANY QUESTIONS?��������FRANK.HOUGHTON@TUS.IE��

IF THIS INTERESTS YOU…

CLASSICAL LITERATURE

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• • Houghton, F. & Foster, A.E. (2024) Resistance and Collaboration within the Panoptivarsity: Differing views of ORCID in Ireland. Journal of Documentation. 10.1108/JD-07-2024-0184

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• • Houghton, F. & Foster, A. (2024) Resistance and Power in Irish Higher Education: ORCID and the Monitored University. Journal of Academic Librarianship. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2024.102853.