python-orcid

Authors

Mateusz Susik <mateuszsusik@gmail.com>

Installation

pip install orcid

Notes

This README might be slightly outdated. You can help by submitting a pull request.

Exception handling

The methods of this library might throw client or server errors. An error is an exception coming from the proven requests library. The usual way to work with them should be:

from requests import RequestException
import orcid
api = orcid.MemberAPI(key, secret, sandbox=True)
try:
    api.add_record(author-orcid, token, 'work',
                   {'title': 'Title', 'type': 'artistic-performance'})
except RequestException as e:
    # Here the error should be handled. As the exception message might be
    # too generic, additional info can be obtained by:
    print(e.response.text)
    # The response is a requests Response instance.

Introduction

ORCID is an open, non-profit, community-based effort to provide a registry of unique researcher identifiers and a transparent method of linking research activities and outputs to these identifiers. ORCID is unique in its ability to reach across disciplines, research sectors, and national boundaries and its cooperation with other identifier systems.

ORCID offers an API (Application Programming Interface) that allows your systems and applications to connect to the ORCID registry, including reading from and writing to ORCID records.

There are two types of API available for developers.

PublicAPI

The public API allows the developers to use the search engine and read author records. In order to use it, you need to pass institution's key and secret.

The functionality of this API is also available in the member API.

Token

In order to read or update records, the token is needed. The tokens come from OAuth 3-legged authorization. You can perform the authorization using this library (examples below).

However, if the user is already connected to ORCiD and authenticated (so you have an authorization code), this process can be simplified:

import orcid
api = orcid.PublicAPI(institution_key, institution_secret, sandbox=True)
token = api.get_token_from_authorization_code(authorization_code,
                                              redirect_uri)

A special case are the tokens for performing search queries. Such queries do not need user authentication, only institution credentials are needed.

import orcid
api = orcid.PublicAPI(institution_key, institution_secret, sandbox=True)
search_token = api.get_search_token_from_orcid()

By reusing the same token, the search functions will run faster skipping the authentication process.

Searching

import orcid
api = orcid.PublicAPI(institution_key, institution_secret, sandbox=True)
search_results = api.search('text:English', access_token=Token)

While creating a search query, it is possible to use a generator in order to reduce time needed to fetch a record.

search_results = api.search_generator('text:English',
                                      pagination=20)
first_result = next(search_results)

Reading records

import orcid
api = orcid.PublicAPI(institution_key, institution_secret, sandbox=True)
search_results = api.search_public('text:English')
# Get the summary
token = api.get_token(user_id, user_password, redirect_uri)
summary = api.read_record_public('0000-0001-1111-1111', 'activities',
                                 token)
summary = api.read_record_public('0000-0001-1111-1111', 'record',
                                 token)

Every record in the summary dictionary should contain put-codes. Using them, it is possible to query the specific record for details. Type of the record and the put-code need to be provided.

# Get the specific record
work = api.read_record_public('0000-0001-1111-1111', 'work', token,
                              '1111')

An exception is made for works request_type. It is possible to fetch multiple selected works at once by selecting multiple put_codes in a list.

work = api.read_record_public('0000-0001-1111-1111', 'works', token,
                              ['1111', '2222', '3333'])

Additional utilities

Python-orcid offers a function for creating a login/register URL.

url = api.get_login_url('/authenticate', redirect_uri, email=email)

MemberAPI

The member API allows the developers to add/change/remove records. To modify the records one needs a token which can be obtained following the OAuth 3-legged authorization process.

The member API lets the developer obtain more information when using the search API or fetching the records.

To create an instance of the member API handler, the institution key and the institution secret have to be provided.

import orcid
api = orcid.MemberAPI(institution_key, institution_secret,
                      sandbox=True)
search_results = api.search('text:English')
# Get the summary
token = api.get_token(user_id, user_password, redirect_uri,
                      '/read-limited')
summary = api.read_record_member('0000-0001-1111-1111', 'activities',
                                 token)

All the methods from the public API are available in the member API.

Getting ORCID

If the ORCID of an author is not known, one can obtain it by authorizing the user:

orcid = api.get_user_orcid(user_id, password, redirect_uri)

Adding/updating/removing records

Using the member API, one can add/update/remove records from the ORCID profile.

All the types of records are supported.

put_code = api.add_record(author-orcid, token, 'work', json)
# Change the type to 'other'
api.update_record(author-orcid, token, 'work', put-code,
                  {'type': 'OTHER'})
api.remove_record(author-orcid, token, 'work', put-code)

The token is the string received from OAuth 3-legged authorization.

The last argument is the record itself. The record should follow ORCID's JSON records definitions. Here is an example of a dictionary that can be passed as an argument:

{
  "title": {
    "title": {
      "value": "Work # 1"
    },
    "subtitle": null,
    "translated-title": null
  },
  "journal-title": {
    "value": "journal # 1"
  },
  "short-description": null,
  "type": "JOURNAL_ARTICLE",
  "external-ids": {
    "external-id": [{
      "external-id-type": "doi",
      "external-id-value": "ext-id-1",
      "external-id-url": {
        "value": "http://dx.doi.org/ext-id-1"
      },
      "external-id-relationship": "SELF"
    }]
  }
}

If you do not know how to structure your JSON, visit ORCID swagger

It is possible to update many works in the same time! Us works request type and pass a JSON like this one:

"bulk": [
{
  "work": {
    "title": {
      "title": {
        "value": "Work # 1"
      },
    },
    "journal-title": {
      "value": "journal # 1"
    },
    "type": "JOURNAL_ARTICLE",
    "external-ids": {
      "external-id": [{
        "external-id-type": "doi",
        "external-id-value": "ext-id-1",
        "external-id-url": {
          "value": "http://dx.doi.org/ext-id-1"
        },
        "external-id-relationship": "SELF"
      }]
    }
  }
},
{
  "work": {
    "title": {
      "title": {
        "value": "Work # 2"
      },
    },
    "journal-title": {
      "value": "journal # 2"
    },
    "type": "JOURNAL_ARTICLE",
    "external-ids": {
      "external-id": [{
        "external-id-type": "doi",
        "external-id-value": "ext-id-2",
        "external-id-url": {
          "value": "http://dx.doi.org/ext-id-2"
        },
        "external-id-relationship": "SELF"
      }]
    }
  }
}
]