Why does an ORCID import sometimes return no publications? Not every ORCID iD is known to the large citation databases. A researcher who is early in being indexed, or who publishes in venues the databases cover thinly, can keep a full ORCID record and still have an empty entry in the database an import reads first.
Axe Builder, our resume builder for researchers, turns an ORCID iD into an academic resume with citations, h-index, journal quartiles and Crossref data already in place. Since 16 July it reads two sources in order. It goes to the citation database first, because that is where the richer metadata sits, and whenever the database has nothing filed against the iD, it reads the works list on the ORCID record itself. In both cases the import brings in the publication list the author actually keeps.
What this means for a researcher outside the big indexes
Scholars in the humanities, in regional journals and in languages the databases reach late are the researchers this change serves first: their resume is now built from their own record, with quartiles and citation counts added wherever they exist. It is the same two-source method Axe Talent uses when we verify a candidate’s publication list for a university, and the builder is free to start with nothing more than an ORCID iD.