WHy Verification Matters
“Diversity and inclusion in identity system design is widely acknowledged as being essential for fair access to basic services.”
Verification isn’t about control — it’s about confidence, fairness, and connection. VeriMe provides a common, researcher-driven solution that protects integrity while simplifying participation.
The Evolving Research Landscape
Trust has always been the foundation of research. It used to be you built trust in person. Today, building trust requires online identity verification.
Global collaboration: Projects span continents and disciplines. Without shared verification, access barriers multiply.
AI-assisted authorship: Confirming who contributed to research outputs is vital for accountability and attribution.
Data and compliance: Funders and repositories increasingly require identity checks to meet ethical and security standards.
Fraud prevention: Journals and institutions face rising impersonation and fake reviewer incidents.
What are Researchers Saying?
Initial results from our global survey of researchers on privacy and identity shows that over 80% have been asked to prove their identity to access research or scholarly tools, data, funding, authorship, facilities, and funding.
Most respondents agreed that identity verification is valuable in these contexts, however, the verifications requested are often email verification or affiliation based, which do not prove identity and are weak trust builders.
Over 90% of respondents felt that the privacy of their personal information – and their say in how their information is collected and shared – was very important or critical.
What do you think? Let’s launch a community-wide conversation about online identity and privacy.
Building Trust through Identity
Research drives our understanding of the world around us. As research has blossomed, collaboration has become more global and research tools and spaces are increasingly digital. Even hyper-local community science projects are run using online platforms.
For research to be meaningful we need more than experiments and data — we need pathways to build trust.
Accountability that the people engaged in a project own the research process and findings described and shared.
Confidence that all collaboration networks—local through international—are empowered through participation by individuals with a range of backgrounds and perspectives.
Transparency in the credentials that a researcher presents to gain access to research tools, data, and funding.
Trust-building systems are built in a way that information is secure, that participants have a voice and a choice, and that streamline workflows rather than creating additional burdens or barriers.
“Rather than managing over 100 passwords, people will bring their identities with them and exercise greater control over data about them. This high-trust identity assurance, therefore, introduces an accountability layer to the internet even as it increases privacy and security.”
VeriMe is Built to Support Trust
VeriMe Cooperative is a global digital identity and personhood verification service researchers can rely on for trusted interactions with research facilities, data, funders, publishers, and resources without exposing personal data.
VeriMe was created for and by researchers to increase trust in the digital identities used by members of the research community. We seek to achieve this goal in a way that provides individuals control over their personal information. In addition, we feel it is critically important to balance the governance of this service across all stakeholders, including the researchers using it and the workers building it and the organizations integrating it.
To provide open research infrastructure that increases trust in digital identities, it is necessary to architect and build the technology, community engagement, and decision-making aspects in one piece. VeriMe has developed a cooperative organizational and governance structure that recognizes and rewards researcher participation. We also recognize the people who build VeriMe in this structure. Researchers and staff may participate as VeriMe Cooperative members, and take part in our governance as well as patronage distributions. Members are responsible for ensuring VeriMe remains aligned with our principles, reviewing our budget, and for assuring our living will provisions.
Further Reading
VeriMe brings national and global research and experience in co-design of open infrastructure, identity federations, digital trust management, and community engagement in research and education spaces.
We have learned that the solutions that work are ones that are developed in community with users. That evolve to meet the needs of researchers and scholars where they are, not where we wish they were. And that have the lowest possible barriers to participation while also integrating support models that sustain the solution so that there is time to really make a difference.
Research Articles by VeriMe Co-Founders
Haak LL, Skinner K, & Ratan K (2025) Engineering Open by Design into Research Infrastructures. Research Ideas and Outcomes 11: e163817. https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.11.e163817.
Ayun DE, Haak LL, & Ginther, DK (2023) How many people in the world do research and development? Global Policy, 14(2) 270-287. https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.13182
Flanagan H, Haak LL, & Paglione LD (2021) Approaching Trust: Case Studies for Developing Global Research Infrastructures. Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics, 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/frma.2021.746514
Lawson J, Cabili MN, Kerry G, Boughtwood T, Thorogood A, Alper P, Bowers SR, Boyles RR, Brookes AJ, Brush M, Burdett T. The Data Use Ontology to streamline responsible access to human biomedical datasets. Cell Genomics. 2021 Nov 10;1(2). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100028
Haak L, Greene S, & Ratan K (2020). A New Research Economy: Socio-technical framework to open up lines of credit in the academic community. Research Ideas and Outcomes, 6: e60477. https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.6.e60477
Phillips CJ & Peterson J (2018) Innovating in the trenches: Enhancing ADFS and Azure for R&E. GÉANT: TNC18, Amsterdam, 11 June 2018.
Haak LL, Fenner M, Paglione L, Pentz E, & Ratner H (2012). ORCID: a system to uniquely identify researchers. Learned Publishing, 25 (4): 259-264. https://doi.org/10.1087/20120404
Haak LL, Baker D, Ginther DK, Gordon GJ, Probus MA, Kannankutty N, Weinberg BA (2012). Standards and infrastructure for innovation data exchange. Science, 338 (6104): 196-7. https://doi.org/ 10.1126/science.1221840