The world's largest scientific association—the American Chemical Society—is backing an effort to make it easier to identify authors and to look up their published research.

The publications division of ACS and the United Kingdom's Royal Society of Chemistry announced Nov. 28 that they had signed on to the ORCID Open Letter. Signatories pledge to require authors to submit a unique digital ID along with their articles; the IDs are obtained through ORCID, a nonprofit organization established for this purpose.

According to an ACS news release, "This partnership with ORCID will resolve ambiguity in researcher identification caused by name changes, cultural differences in name presentation, and the inconsistent use of name abbreviations that is too often a source of confusion for those who must rely on the published scientific record." http://bit.ly/2gyEAdy

ACS has nearly 157,000 members. Its publications division produces more than 50 peer-reviewed journals.

"ACS has supported ORCID since the outset of the initiative," said Sarah Tegen, vice president of global editorial and author services at ACS Publications. "We are pleased now to align with the Royal Society of Chemistry in this endeavor."

Other groups that have signed on to the open letter include the American Geophysical Union and the technical and engineering association IEEE.

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