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ORCID explained: what an ORCID iD is and why researchers need one

Updated 4 min read By Life of Research

Short answer

An ORCID iD is a free, permanent identifier for you as a researcher, written as a 16-character number such as 0000-0002-1825-0097 and shown as a link to orcid.org. It tells your work apart from that of people with similar names, follows you through name changes and job moves, and lets publishers, funders and repositories fill in and update your record automatically. Registering at orcid.org takes a few minutes; then add the iD to every submission, deposit and grant application.

What is an ORCID iD?

An ORCID iD is a persistent identifier for a person, issued by ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID), a not-for-profit organisation that has run the registry since 2012. Registration is free for individuals; the organisation is funded by member institutions, publishers and funders.

The iD is 16 characters in four groups of four. The last character is a check digit, which can be the letter X, so a mistyped iD can usually be detected. It is displayed as a full link:

Format

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1825-0097 (ORCID's own documentation example)

Behind the iD is an ORCID record where you can list your employment, education, works and funding, and decide who can see each item.

Why do researchers need an ORCID iD?

Researchers need an ORCID iD because names are poor identifiers. Many researchers share common names, names are transliterated differently across languages, and people change names. An iD attached to each publication removes the ambiguity, so your work is credited to you and not to a namesake.

It also saves work. Many journals ask for, and some require, an ORCID iD from authors at submission, and funders increasingly request it in grant applications. With your permission, organisations such as Crossref and DataCite can add newly published works to your ORCID record automatically, and other systems can then read your publication list from ORCID instead of asking you to retype it.

Finally, the iD travels with you. Your record does not belong to an employer, so it survives moves between institutions, sectors and countries.

How do you register for an ORCID iD?

Registration takes a few minutes at orcid.org/register:

  1. Enter your name as you publish it, plus any other names you have published under.
  2. Add an email address (adding a second one helps you recover the account later) and set a password.
  3. Choose the default visibility for new items on your record.
  4. Verify your email address using the link ORCID sends.
  5. Add your current affiliation, then use the "Add works" search-and-link options to import your publications from sources such as Crossref, DataCite or Europe PMC.

Before registering, search orcid.org for your name: if you or your institution created an iD years ago, recover that one instead of making a duplicate.

What can other people see on your ORCID record?

You decide. Each item on an ORCID record has one of three visibility settings:

  • Everyone: visible to anyone and available through ORCID's public API;
  • Trusted parties: visible only to organisations you have granted access;
  • Only me: private to you.

The iD itself is designed to be shared, since its purpose is to be attached to your work. Make your works list public if you want other systems, including the Life of Research import tool, to read it.

Where should you use your ORCID iD?

Use it everywhere your work is recorded: manuscript submissions, preprint and repository deposits, grant applications, conference registrations, your CV, your email signature and your web profile. Always give the full https://orcid.org/… link, which is both human-readable and machine-actionable.

Only enter co-authors' iDs that they have given you or that you have confirmed on their ORCID records. A wrong iD attaches a paper to the wrong person, which is worse than leaving the field empty.

How does Life of Research use ORCID iDs?

Each author on a deposit has an optional ORCID field. The form checks the format (four groups of four characters, the last possibly X), and the iD then appears on the record page as an ORCID badge linking to the author's record.

The iD is also published in the record's machine-readable metadata: as a citation_author_orcid tag read by reference managers, and as the author's identifier in the schema.org structured data that search engines read. That is how search systems learn that the author of this record is the same person as the author of papers elsewhere.

The import tool works the other way: enter an ORCID iD to list the public works on that record and pre-fill a deposit from any of them.

What are the common ORCID mistakes?

  • Two iDs for one person. If you have registered twice, ORCID can deprecate the duplicate so that it points to the record you keep; contact ORCID support rather than abandoning one.
  • A private works list. Systems that read ORCID see nothing if your works are set to "Only me".
  • Typing the iD from memory. Copy it from your record; the check digit catches many typos, but not all.

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