Name Authority Files
Existing name authority files that could potentially be used in the Knowledge for All system.
Cornell University Library
Metadata for arXiv articles may be reused in non-commercial and commercial systems.
Includes authors in arXiv colleciton only (computer science, mathematics, physics, science, statistics). Author must create own user account to create authority record. Data available via API http://arxiv.org/help/api/index
Open Library Society and Thomas Krichel
CC0
name, given name, family name, email, organization, unique identifier, name variations, publications
Authors register and claim works, profile page is created, and users of bibliographic databases that use AuthorClaim record can link right to the profile page. The service is in a building-up phase, but not experimental. The service is basically a clone of the RePEc Author Service, which already runs for almost 10 years, and has registered a majority of active researchers in economics. There is no listing of registered persons or a search facility for them. Other services will provide this. The profiles data is available for bulk download at ftp://ftp.authorclaim.org. Utilizes a number of existing collections: http://authorclaim.org/collections
American Institute of Mathematics (AIM), Harvard University, Stanford University, and the University of California, Berkeley
Open data, but license not explicit.
Experimental repository for aggregating author identity information maintained by a variety of data providers. Has an initial focus on the mathematics and statistical communities. The website offers a 'developer' view of data and is not intended to be a primary interface to data. The website offers basic search, browse, and export capability. structWSF provides a RESTful API for importing data and creating applications that use the data. There is also a wrapper called BKN_WSF which simplifies use of the API for Python development and includes a tutorial. Complete datasets are available for downloading at, http://downloads.bibsoup.org/
ISNI Registration Authority (RA)
Closed, subscription-based
ISNI, First Name, Last Name, Class, Role
No
ISO standard, people must apply for a number.
Library of Congress
Public domain
MADS
Yes
Available as bulk download as MADS/RDF. "We'll make a SKOS/RDF download available in the near future. We are offering two serializations: n-triples and RDF/XML."
Based on book publications rather than journal publications.
ORCID, Inc.
Closed
Project in early stages of development. International, collaborative project of a non-profit organization, but business model will involve a combination of fee for service and/or membership fees.
Thomson Reuters
Closed, subscription-based
Researchers register and create profiles
OCLC
RDF, MADS, SKOS
Yes
Joint project of several national libraries plus selected regional and trans-national library agencies that matches and links library authority files. Service is currently free if you become a member of their consortium, and you need to apply to become a member by submitting test files. Brochure says the service will be freely available to all in the future. Could request permission to use. Might be more oriented to book authors.
Mimas and the British Library
Fields of interest, institutional affiliation, publications, collaborators
Yes
Focused on UK researchers. "Currently this service and site are used for testing and validation of the in-development software prototype for the Names project. This service and site are not intended for use in live external applications or services except for experimentation as the availability, data and API are currently all subject to change." Not sure if whole data set is available. Developing a plug-in for the EPrints repository software that will automatically query the Names data as part of the data-entry process.