2026-10-27 –, Naturalis 01
Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) play a vital role in enhancing research security by enabling transparent, accurate, and interoperable tracking of research activities, affiliations, funding, and outputs. This presentation will explore how PIDs—such as ORCID iDs for researchers, ROR IDs for institutions, DOIs for publications and datasets, and grant identifiers—can help uncover risks related to undisclosed foreign affiliations, collaborations, and misattributed funding. PIDs support automated data validation, improving the integrity of researcher profiles, and facilitating cross-system compliance checks. PIDs are becoming essential tools for institutions and funding agencies to uphold the security and trustworthiness of the research ecosystem. In this session, we will explain the different persistent identifiers used in research, how they are used, and the level of adoption of PIDs worldwide. We will focus on the impact they have on research security workflows.
In an increasingly complex global research environment, maintaining transparency and protecting intellectual property has become a critical challenge for research institutions. Current security models often suffer from a "visibility gap" caused by a heavy reliance on manual, paper-based self-disclosures and fragmented data scattered across disconnected systems. This presentation explores how Persistent Identifiers (PIDs), long-lasting digital references to researchers, institutions, and outputs, are evolving from library tools into essential infrastructure for research security and integrity.
Central to this session is the role of PIDs in building a trustworthy research ecosystem. By serving as the digital "connective tissue" between entities, PIDs enable automated validation and real-time tracking, shifting security from an annual administrative burden to a continuous process of integrity monitoring. We will examine the "Big Six" pillars of this ecosystem:
ORCID: The researcher’s "Passport".
ROR: The "Verified Address" for institutions.
DOI: The "Fingerprint" for publications and data.
Grant ID, RAiD, and RRID: Critical identifiers for tracking federal funding, project "envelopes," and core research facilities.
The core of the presentation will highlight how PIDs function as security "sensors" to uphold research integrity. By leveraging interoperability, PIDs allow institutions to automatically flag conflicts of interest when affiliations do not match funding sources, uncover "shadow labs" by tracking where research is actually published, and ensure funding integrity by linking Grant IDs directly to specific outputs. This digital mapping makes it significantly harder for high-risk collaborations or misattributed funding to hide in the "noise" of bad data.
While the session addresses US compliance—specifically NSPM-33 and standardised disclosure requirements for agencies such as the DOE and NSF—it situates these efforts within a broader global context. With over 11 million active ORCID iDs and 100,000 ROR institutions registered worldwide, PIDs have become the international standard encouraged by G7 and G20 members to balance open science with national security.
The session concludes with a call to action for institutional leaders to audit their PID integrations and establish bilateral ORCID integrations. By writing employment, funding, and works directly to ORCID records, institutions can reduce administrative overhead while building a robust defence against foreign influence and misattribution.
Paloma Marín Arraiza holds a degree in Physics and a Master's degree in Scientific Information and Communication, both from the University of Granada (Spain). She earned her PhD in Information Science from the State University of São Paulo (UNESP, Brazil), with a thesis on data modelling for enhanced publications. She also has specific training in data governance, data protection, and artificial intelligence. Before joining ORCID, she worked in research libraries in Germany and Austria, where she focused on managing non-textual research outputs and persistent identifiers. Since March 2020, she has been part of the ORCID team, where she currently serves as Associate Director of Engagement. In addition, she is a guest lecturer in Research Data Management and Data Stewardship courses in Spain and Austria, and serves on the editorial and review boards of several diamond open-access journals in the field of information science.
