The future of our national computing and storage services relies on proving that researchers use them. Now, much of the valuable e-INFRA CZ users’ research output is "invisible" to our funders. We are developing a new automated system to harvest users’ publications, avoiding the need to report them twice.
The user action is simple: just link your ORCID iD and use the proper acknowledgement in your publications.
Motivation: The "Invisible" Science
Our e-infrastructure supports 7,000 active users, who have produced over 1,700 research papers and 382 theses in the last four years. Securing funding for new hardware (CPUs, GPUs, storage) critically depends on our ability to demonstrate meaningful usage to funding providers.
Unfortunately, a significant portion of research generated on e-INFRA CZ is "invisible." This gap between real user output and formally reported impact makes it challenging to demonstrate the platform's true value and to secure the necessary resources for development.
To shield the users from excessive reporting, we rely on an automated data collection system. For this system to function reliably, we require the users only:
- Acknowledgement of e-INFRA CZ in papers
- Linking the ORCID iD to their e-INFRA account
Here is what happens in real life—and where credit often gets lost:
| Scenario | Status | Result |
| Acknowledged + ORCID registered | ✅ Perfect | We can connect the publication with our users automatically. Impact is fully counted. |
| Acknowledged, ORCID not registered | ⚠️ Incomplete | We might find the paper, but we cannot reliably identify in our system who did the work. |
| ORCID registered, not acknowledged | ⚠️ Invisible | We know who you are, but there is no acknowledgement. Impact can not be counted. |
The Goal: Automation and Accuracy
Our overarching goal is to achieve a fully automated pipeline for capturing research impact. This ORCID-driven process will eliminate manual reporting and will ensure accurate data.
User actions (enabling automation)
- Establish a unique ORCID iD (if not already held)
- Link the ORCID iD to the e-INFRA CZ account
- Use ORCID iD for all publications
- Include the mandatory e-INFRA CZ acknowledgement in all relevant publications
System action (capturing impact)
- e-INFRA CZ will automatically harvest publications meeting both criteria, safely attribute the work to the correct user, and count the impact toward essential statistics (it is also used for fairshare calculation in MetaCentrum)
⚠️ Transition Period: Fair-share & manual reporting (MetaCentrum)
During the transition period to a fully automated system, the following temporary manual step is required:
- Please continue to register your publications manually.
How to Link Your ORCID Account
If you have an ORCID
If you already have an ORCID iD, follow the Step-by-Step Guide: How to Link existing ORCID
Don't Have an ORCID Yet?
If you don't have one, now is the time. ORCID iD is a free, globally recognized identifier that helps distinguish you from other researchers with similar names (e.g., "J. Novák").
Why you should get one:
- Your research record remains consistent even if you change institutions, email addresses, or name formats.
- It connects your publications, datasets, software, etc. across systems (Scopus, Web of Science, etc.).
- It enables e-INFRA CZ to correctly associate your publications with your user account for reporting and grant tracking.
Documentation: How to create your ORCID
