Guide to ORCID: Research Identifiers

Then why use ORCID?

ORCID offers a more holistic management system than these services. It is also used more widely, as it is cross-disciplinary and not geographically specific. In addition:

• The ORCID identifier is starting to be used more frequently in manuscript submissions and data repositories
• Some organizations that offer grants (including the NIH) require an ORCID identifier to easily find a scholar's work
• Organizations and universities are starting to use their faculty's ORCID identifiers to showcase the research that they do 
• ORCID is private and protects scholar's data; users can set certain information to "private" 

Research identifiers help readers find journal articles, books, and specific author's work. They usually include numbers and are different than platforms (academia.edu, for example). Using your ORCID iD on publications provides a seamless way for readers to find you and confirm what your work is. Many publishers are starting to encourage authors to include personal research identifiers when they submit their work. Other examples of research identifiers include:

• DOI: a digital object identifier allows users to find specific articles 
• ISBN: international standard book numbers identifies specific books 
• ISSN: an international standard serial number allows users to find specific periodicals or magazines 

Before ORCID was created, some database vendors attempted to identify scholars' specific work and distinguish them from other authors with similar names. These services are now compatible with ORCID but they are useful to know about, especially if you publish in the sciences.

• ResearcherID-- you probably have a ResearcherID if many of your publications are indexed in Web of Science. ResearcherID is compliant with ORCID and transferring information between the two profiles is simple. Read more about ResearcherID.

• Web of Science has created detailed instructions on how to integrate ResearcherID and ORCID. 

• Scopus Author ID-- you don't need to create a Scopus Author ID. If you have at least one article indexed in Scopus, they will assign you an ID. Find your ID by searching for your name.

View step-by-step slides on this integrating Scopus and ORCID.

There are several other organizations that ORCID has integrated with. This enables users to simplify their citation tracking.