Changes in version 0.1.0 (2026-01-15)                  

Breaking Changes (December 28, 2025)

Authentication Behavior

  - IMPORTANT: The package no longer automatically uses the ORCID_TOKEN
    environment variable for API requests
  - Reason: The ORCID public API does NOT require authentication and
    actually rejects invalid tokens with 401 errors
  - Impact: If you previously set ORCID_TOKEN and experienced
    authentication errors, you can now safely unset it
  - Migration: If you need authentication (for rate limits or private
    data), pass the token explicitly: orcid_works(id, token =
    "your-token")
  - Authentication is now truly optional as intended by ORCID's public
    API design

Bug Fixes (December 28, 2025)

API Status Check

  - Fixed orcid_ping() to use application/json instead of text/plain
    Accept header
  - Now properly parses JSON response and returns "OK" when API is
    healthy
  - Resolves 406 (Not Acceptable) errors from the status endpoint

Search Results

  - Fixed empty search results returning 1 row of NA values instead of 0
    rows
  - orcid_search() and orcid() now correctly return empty data.table
    with 0 rows when no matches found
  - attr(result, "found") still correctly shows 0 for total matches

Parser Improvements

  - Enhanced parse_search_results() to handle NA values from
    safe_extract() when JSON contains null
  - Prevents creation of placeholder rows with NA values

Documentation Improvements (December 28, 2025)

Clarified Authentication

  - Updated README and vignette to explicitly state authentication is
    optional
  - Explained when tokens are actually needed (rate limits, private data
    access)
  - Provided OAuth2 flow example for users who do need tokens
  - Corrected misconceptions from rorcid documentation about token
    requirements

Internal Documentation

  - Updated orcid_request() documentation to reflect optional
    authentication
  - Clarified that public API works without any token
  - Improved error messages for authentication failures

Test Suite (December 28, 2025)

  - Removed ORCID_TOKEN checks from all test helper functions
  - All 302 tests now pass without requiring any authentication
  - Tests correctly handle both authenticated and unauthenticated
    scenarios

Initial Release Features

Biographical Data Functions

  - orcid_person(): Fetch complete person/biographical data
  - orcid_bio(): Retrieve biography text
  - orcid_keywords(): Get researcher keywords
  - orcid_researcher_urls(): Fetch researcher URLs
  - orcid_external_identifiers(): Get external identifiers (Scopus,
    ResearcherID, etc.)
  - orcid_other_names(): Retrieve alternative names
  - orcid_address(): Get address/country information
  - orcid_email(): Fetch email addresses (if public)

Professional Activities Functions

  - orcid_distinctions(): Fetch distinctions and honors
  - orcid_invited_positions(): Get invited positions
  - orcid_memberships(): Retrieve professional memberships
  - orcid_qualifications(): Fetch qualifications
  - orcid_services(): Get service activities
  - orcid_research_resources(): Retrieve research resources

Employment and Education

  - orcid_employments(): Fetch employment history
  - orcid_educations(): Retrieve education records

Research Outputs

  - orcid_works(): Get works/publications
  - orcid_funding(): Fetch funding records
  - orcid_peer_reviews(): Retrieve peer review activities

Activities Summary

  - orcid_activities(): Fetch all activities in one call (returns named
    list of all activity types)

Search Functions

  - orcid(): Flexible Solr query search of ORCID registry
  - orcid_search(): User-friendly search with named parameters
  - orcid_doi(): Search for ORCID records by DOI

Batch Operations

  - orcid_fetch_record(): Get complete ORCID record (supports all
    sections)
  - orcid_fetch_many(): Batch fetch for multiple ORCIDs

Utilities

  - orcid_ping(): Check ORCID API status

Technical Details

  - Full ORCID API v3.0 support
  - CRAN-compliant implementation
  - Comprehensive test coverage (302 tests) with skip_on_cran() guards
  - All functions return data.table objects for efficient data
    manipulation
  - Complete roxygen2 documentation
  - Built with modern httr2 package for HTTP requests
  - No authentication required for public data access
  - Optional token support for enhanced rate limits