Should you get and use an ORCID iD?

What is ORCID?

ORCID is an open, non-profit community-based effort that provides researchers with a unique digital identifier and a transparent method of linking research activities and output to the identifiers. ORCID identifiers, which stands for “Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier”, can be used by editors, funding agencies, publishers, and institutions to reliably identify individuals across disciplines, research sectors, and national boundaries. By cooperating with other identifier systems, the risk of confusing researchers of the same name is eliminated.

How can I use an ORCID iD?

An ORCID iD provides authors with the means to reliably, unambiguously, and permanently attach their names with the related work throughout the research career.

Why should an author have an ORCID iD?

Without a single system to uniquely identify the number of active researchers, an author will likely face any one of the following issues:

1. Disambiguation: research activities can easily be distinguished from authors of the same name and affiliations.
2. Credit and attribution: research activities (publications, articles, media stories, curated exhibits, experiments, patents, etc.) are easily and uniquely associated with an author’s identity.
3. Get found, get counted: ORCID records facilitate research discoverability.
4. Manage privacy and identity: personal privacy is easily managed without preventing public access to existing work.
5. Portable: the ORCID iD is accessible across organizations and national boundaries. It moves with the author.

How would it benefit me?

Make your ORCID record public (configurable through the author’s ORCID account settings). Once public, you can ensure the discoverability of your research profile by including it in your complete target list.  For example, you can include it in the following:

• Manuscript submission systems, grant applications, and other research workflows
• CV, faculty web page, and signature line

1. Social network accounts such as, LinkedIn, academia.edu, and ResearchGate.

Can I add my peer reviews to my ORCID record?

Peer review is one of the fundamental aspects of a research professional. By using your ORCID iD, you enable connections with the same organizations that you perform the peer review services, essentially raising the visibility of your contributions.

By using your ORCID profile you can maintain a record of all your contributions for the various organizations that you’ve provided peer review efforts. The contributions can include any one of the following:

• journal articles
• books
• conference programs
• grant award applications
• hiring, promotion, & tenured decisions

While peer review activities can only be added to your ORCID record by a trusted organization, ORCID does support the range of review activities from double-blind reviews to open reviews.

Getting Registered

So start today. Take charge of your published efforts. The ORCID identifier will belong only to you and you’ll be able to keep it through your long and prosperous academic career, regardless of your institution. It simply ensures that you are correctly identified.

Register your ORCID iD

Now one question remains, can you make your ORCID iD work for you?  Yes, you can. In our next series, you’ll get recommendations on how to make ORCID work for you. Subscribe to know more.

For more information please see:

• ORCID website
• ORCID FAQ page