What is an ORCID iD?
ORCID iD, which stands for Open Researcher and Contributor iD, is a unique digital identifier [e.g. orcid.org/0000-0002-9864-8168] that lets you distinguish yourself from other researchers especially those who have the same names or initials as you.
What can it do for you?
Having an ORCID iD will let you gain credit for your scholarly works, by ensuring they can be correctly attributed to you. ORCID iD also enables synchronization between researchers and other systems, thus improving the efficiency of linking your works with funders, publishers, and others within the research community. ORCID’s mantra is enter once, reuse often.
It also provides an easy way to consolidate your publications from various databases e.g. Scopus and Web of Science in one place. It can act as a mobile research CV that you can bring with you anywhere you go.
How else can it help me?
With Publishers:
The following publishers now require you to use an ORCID iD during your manuscript submission process. They are:
- American Chemical Society
- EMBO Press
- Faculty of 1000
- Hindawi
- Royal Society of Chemistry
- Science Journals
- ScienceOpen
- The Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
- The Public Library of Science (PLOS)
- The Royal Society
- Wiley
[Refer to https://orcid.org/content/requiring-orcid-publication-workflows-open-letter for the full list of publishers.]
Basically this means you need to provide your ORCID iD when you submit your manuscript to these publishers.
With Funding:
- U.S. Department of Energy,
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration,
- The Wellcome Trust,
- Japan Science and Technology Agency,
- UK National Institute of Health Research
An increasing number of funding organizations are also starting to require ORCID iDs in grant submissions so that they can track the output of the research they have funded.
Where can I sign up?
Go to https://orcid.org/register
Complete the form and click “Register”. You will receive an email shortly after. Just click on the link in the email to verify your email address.
