User Facilities and Publications - Findings and Opportunities

User facilities are specialized government-sponsored research infrastructure available for external use to advance scientific or technical knowledge. Researchers compete for access to these facilities and specialized equipment, but do not consistently acknowledge the contributions made by facilities when they publish the results of their work. Collection of these research outputs is necessary to enable an accurate assessment of the scientific impact of these public investments. Recently several user facilities have begun to explore innovative approaches to these challenges, including adoption of ORCID.

This report summarizes the discussions of the User Facilities and Publications Working Group, which focused on ascertaining what data would help agencies and facilities to map impact, and to determine whether and how ORCID could enable its collection in a manner that increases data capture and reduces reporting burden for researchers. The group had three objectives: to bring together publishers and facilities to better understand research, publication, and reporting workflows; to define terms to enable conversation; and to identify opportunities for working together to streamline and, where possible, automate impact reporting.