3 Types of Metadata Researchers Should Know About

3 Types of Metadata Researchers Should Know About

When you publish in a journal, persistent identifiers give research a unique label.

Publishing experimental results in a journal article drives researchers forward. Dissemination of those data is just as, if not more, important. How do we guarantee that the information is getting where it needs to go? How do we ensure proper credit is given? Metadata, or data about data, gives publishers and authors the leverage to do those things and more. This may take the form of persistent identifiers (PIDs). Metadata and PIDs are like clothing labels that tell you where your favorite shirt was made and how to care for it. Here are three types of PIDs you should know about:

1. ORCID
What: Most authors are familiar with ORCID, or Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a means of attributing research outputs to a unique identity, distinguishing people with similar names.
How: An author’s ORCID record allows them to keep track of all publications and prevents name changes from splitting up a publishing record into subgroups of name variants. ORCID identifiers also facilitate broad-reaching linkage of an author’s works across multiple databases, such as PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and others.
Need to know: APS journals require corresponding authors enter an ORCID at the time of submission. Obtaining an ORCID is easy and free of charge, and all authors are encouraged to obtain one.

2. Research Organization Registry (ROR)
What: ROR is like an ORCID but for institutions. We ask authors to carefully select their affiliation details, so we have accurate data on where they performed the research.
How: Many universities want to know where their scientists are publishing and whether they are publishing open access. The ROR ID becomes even more important for APS authors in 2025 under our Subscribe to Open (S2O) business model.
Need to know: APS is providing an open access publishing guarantee to all 10 primary research journals for corresponding authors from institutions that subscribe to the APS Digital Library or to all seven American Journals of Physiology (AJP) journals for corresponding authors from institutions that subscribe to AJP Consolidated. We will use ROR to identify those authors who will receive automatic CC BY licensing. Authors should make sure to apply the correct ROR ID at the time of submission.

3. Open Funder Registry (OFR, formerly FundRef)
What: OFR is managed by Crossref, the nonprofit behind digital object identifiers. (DOIs are the GOAT of PIDs.)
How: Just like universities want to know where their researchers are publishing, so do funders. Funders use these metadata to catalog where their award recipients are publishing and to confirm compliance with funding mandates. For example, National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding requires adherence to the NIH Public Access Policy, and NIH does check for compliance.
Need to know: Recently, APS deployed an automation that will flag content for delivery to the NIH Manuscript Submission system or the European counterpart, Europe PMC plus, aiding authors with the power of metadata.

This article was originally published in the January 2025 issue of The Physiologist Magazine. Copyright © 2025 by the American Physiological Society. Send questions or comments to tphysmag@physiology.org.