ORCID uptake in pharma-sponsored research

Objective ORCID iDs are unique, persistent author identifiers providing disambiguation and transparency in publications. We analysed trends in ORCID iD registration by pharma employees and use in pharma-sponsored publications. Methods ORCID iD registrations by employees of 14 pharma companies between 01/01/2018 and 01/07/2021 were extracted and pooled using ORCID’s application programming interface and organization email domains. Previously, ORCID iD use in publications by six of these companies was assessed using PubMed to search for and extract metadata from their sponsored publications published 01/01/2018–01/07/2019.1 For comparison, this analysis was re-performed for the same six companies for 01/01/2020–01/07/2021. Results ORCID iD registrations by employees at all 14 companies increased by 169% from 01/01/2018 to 01/07/2021. At the publication level, 1289 papers sponsored by the six companies were analysed in the current study (vs 843 previously). A larger proportion of papers had one or more associated ORCID iDs (42.6% vs 27.8% previously), and more of these papers had multiple iDs (52.6% vs 32.5% previously). Overall, more ORCID iDs were listed (1647 vs 388 previously), and a smaller proportion of these belonged to first/last authors (19.0% vs 56.4% previously). More authors who were listed with an ORCID iD and associated with multiple papers used their iDs consistently (23.8% vs 9.1% previously), but three-quarters still did not use them consistently. The proportion of ORCID iDs belonging to authors who are pharma employees decreased (11.5% vs 17.5% previously). Conclusions ORCID iD registration by pharma employees and use by authors in pharma-sponsored publications are increasing. However, sustained engagement efforts from pharma and publishers are needed to ensure authors of pharma-sponsored publications use their iDs consistently.