About Proceedings of the 2015 ORCID-Casrai Joint Conference

The ORCID-Casrai joint conference was held in May 2015 at the University of Barcelona. Both organisations are dedicated to improving the quality of information about research, and to increasing the efficiency of the exchange of this information, by promoting the use of standards and persistent identifiers. Research evaluation is the driver for the largest-scale exchanges of research information. Reducing the burden of gathering and sharing this information is a major undertaking.

The ORCID-Casrai conference drew together experts and practitioners from around the world to explore the ways that research evaluation is evolving, to discuss the metrics, indicators and indices in use to support evaluation, and to share new tools and ideas for gathering and analysing research information.

Speakers were drawn from across the disciplines, from technical and policy spheres and from a wide range of viewpoints. The papers gathered in this conference collection provide a taste of the range of ideas and experiences that were shared at the conference. They are drawn from a number of disciplines, and demonstrate the experience that, for example, the arts can bring to a biomedical researcher looking to demonstrate the value of an ephemeral research output, such as an informal lecture or public engagement.