We have been asked by the powers that be to move away from Academia.edu and ResearchGate and adopt services like orcID.
The one big thing missing in orcID is that there’s nowhere to describe the lab or research team, all groups are on the faculty level only.
Do any of you have some creative work-around?
Having previously worked with ORCID and helped labs and groups add ORCID iDs to their workflows, I can share about how labs/research groups use ORCID:
As others have mentioned, ORCID iDs are to identify individuals -- they distinguish you from other researchers who may share your name. A lab or group should not obtain an ORCID iD for their singular "lab" identity as that violates the terms of use. (n.b. ORCID iDs created for what appear to be non-individuals are regularly reported to ORCID by members of the ORCID community. Check Twiter -- you'll see call outs.)
Every individual who creates an ORCID iD has an ORCID record -- a web page which lists things connected to their ORCID iD. These things can be added by the individual or by systems they grant permission to update their ORCID record, such as a journal with whom they publish or their employing institution.
Unlike Academia.edu and ResearchGate, ORCID does not allow you to store manuscripts, preprints, etc. You can however use preprint servers, zenodo, figshare, etc., connect your ORCID iD to your account in those systems, and then Crossref or DataCite will add your papers to your ORCID record.
Research labs or groups may have multiple ORCID goals:
Collecting the individual research members' ORCID iDs so the lab/group has them on record
Adding their lab/group affiliation to the research members' ORCID records -- so when the researcher submits a grant application or manuscript, the submission system will read their lab/group affiliation from the ORCID record
Using those iDs, regularly searching research information systems, such as Crossref, Dimensions, and Web of Science, for their members' works, grants, and more (only works when the members connect their ORCID iDs during submission or proofing)
Using those iDs, regularly accessing their ORCID records (programmatically) to learn of any new works, grants, research resources (facilities, labs, collections, etc.), memberships, etc. connected to their ORCID records
Physical labs with equipment, facilities, etc. used for research which have an access approval process may collect ORCID iDs during submission so they can record use of their facility as a "research resource" on researchers' ORCID records. More about this here.
