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Persistent researcher identifier system: have you heard of ORCID®?

What is an ORCID?

ORCID® (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a persistent, unique, open, digital identifier for researchers. 

  • Your personal ORCID iD distinguishes you from other researchers, globally.
  • It's free to register and lets you link all your research publications and other outputs to your identifier.
  • Open to all, non-profit and community-driven: ORCID is a non-proprietry service maintained for the benefit of researchers in all disciplines and at all career stages.
  • A quick and easy process, taking as little as 30 seconds to register. 

Why do I need an ORCID iD?

Your personal ORCID iD:

  • Distinguishes you from every other researcher that has the same or similar name to you.
  • Remains the same throughout your career, you can take it with you wherever your career takes you in the world, making it easier to transfer details of your outputs between systems and employers, saving you time and effort.
  • Is a mandatory requirement when applying for research grants from the Wellcome Trust. Allows for integration with UKRI's Researchfish system, and ORCIDs have been recommended for the next REF exercise.
  • Helps maximise the impact of your research.
  • Reduces form filling, enter data once.
  • Allows you to send publications metadata added in Discovery Research Portal to ORCID and other systems without the need for you to re-enter information.

Creating or connecting an ORCID iD from within Pure

Creating and storing your ORCID iD within Pure means that your iD will be linked to your Pure profile and associated with your research outputs and activities.

Once set up your ORCID iD will then be displayed in your public profile on Discovery Research Portal which will link out to your ORCID record, and associated with publications as they appear. 

As an increasing number of universities, research funders and publishers adopt ORCID, having your iD within Pure will maximise the opportunity for system integrations in the future.

Step 1:

  1. Log into Pure from Discovery via the 'Sign in to your profile' box.
  2. From your Personal overview, select Edit profile.

    Screenshot of Edit profile (circled) in personal overview page in Pure
     
  3. In the new window, select Create or Connect your ORCID iD.

    Screenshot of Create or Connect your ORCID ID button (circled) in Pure
     
  4. A message will appear that advises you that you will be taken to the ORCID website and lists which information Pure will export. Review the information and select Proceed.

    Screenshot of Connect with your ORCID ID pop-up window
     
  5. The window will then redirect to an ORCID authorisation page that is linked to the ORCID website.

    Screenshot of Sign in or Register with ORCID pop-up window

     
    • Sign in with your Email or 16-digit ORCID iD and password then select Sign In or
    • Select Register now to create an ORCID iD. Follow the three steps to Create your ORCID iD.

      Screenshot of Create your ORCID ID pop-up window

       
      1. Register your email address. It is recommended that you enter details about your institutional affiliation (this helps other researchers who may be searching for you on ORCID). A second email address can also help you access your ORCID record if you move institutions.
      2. Create a password for your account and set up any notification settings.
      3. Choose your visibility settings and find information regarding the terms of the ORCID record. We recommend you set your account to visible so whatever search tool people are using they will find your research. 
         
  6. Following authorisation you will be redirected to your Pure profile where the ORCID will now show.
  7. Remember to select the Save button at the bottom of the screen. If you don't your ID will not be stored in Pure.

    Screenshot of Save button (circled) in Pure

How private and secure is my information on ORCID?

Information kept by ORCID is protected by their privacy policy. The ORCID web services are also TRUSTe certified.

ORCID offer a range of visibility settings for you to choose from that can be applied to different parts of your record. These can be set within your account settings. Information set as 'private' is not shared with any third parties, including the University, unless you specifically delegate access.

Information about ORCID's commitment to information security is contained in their privacy policy.

Further information about how ORCID ensure the security of your data is available on their support pages.

Developing your ORCID profile

Personalising your account
Once created, you can add biographical, education and employment history to your ORCID record by logging in on the ORCID website. The video below from the ORCID team gives you a quick tour of how to update your ORCID record including why it's important to add a second email address to your account.

A Quick Tour of the ORCID Record from ORCID on Vimeo.

 

Transcript

Meet Sofia and Li - they are preparing to submit an article on renewable and sustainable energy technology.


A growing number of publishers now allow Single Sign-On with an ORCID iD, which reduces password fatigue for researchers, among many other benefits.


Li remembers he used to have one, while working as a professor at another university.


He recalls that he decided to register for one in order to disambiguate himself from his peers.


But that was a long time ago and he can’t remember his password or email, not to mention he no longer has access to that email.


Do you have a similar issue? Well, don't worry! Visit ORCID to reset your password.


Here's the page to help you reset your password.


If you have an active account but haven’t checked it in a while, you may discover you never filled in your record after signing up. Just like Sofia, your account may be practically blank!


When Sofia signs in, she discovers that some of the fields, like her  Biography, Employment, Education & Qualifications, and Funding, are blank!


But it’s not a problem; she can fill in a lot of those fields right away.


The few minutes it takes her to do this will save her loads of time down the line and will ensure she and her work is easily discoverable throughout her career.


And so Sofia starts by pulling up a recent document containing her biography. She simply copies and pastes.


She also remembers that she can update her employment details. This way, anyone searching for her can easily confirm who she is.


Sofia currently works at New Arizona State University and if this organization is on the drop-down list, ORCID will automatically fill in the city and state for her.


Once filled, she can decide to keep this information private, available to only chosen organizations, or public so that it can be re-used by other websites. She can set the privacy for every item in her record.


And of course, she can’t forget where she earned her degrees. So, she decides to continue to the Education and Qualifications section to add her PhD in Computer Science.


To wrap it up, Sofia decides to add one more detail, with plans to complete the rest later. She heads over to the Works section. Using the Search and Link wizard, she finds one of her old articles in Crossref Metadata Search and then authorizes it.


Her ORCID record now has a lot of useful information!


She then remembers Li having trouble logging in and decides to add another email to her record - her permanent one - so she’ll always have access to her record.


As the last step, Sofia sets a reminder to update her ORCID record at the start of every quarter.


A couple of months later, Sofia and Li’s article is published.


They are delighted to discover the article ‘magically’ appears on their ORCID records, courtesy of the publisher’s ORCID integration. Fantastic!


So, you see! Updating your ORCID record is easy. Let’s get started.

 
Link with other identifiers
You can link other identifiers to your ORCID account. Scopus Author ID and Researcher ID are both ORCID compliant. You can use your ORCID to import records from Scopus and Web of Science to populate your profile. This makes sure all your outputs are visible and discoverable via a single route and lets you easily import data from these into ORCID.
Linking Scopus Author ID to ORCID
How to build your online researcher identity and increase your impact and linking your Researcher ID to ORCID
 
Publish your ORCID ID on your outputs
Make sure you include your ORCiD ID when submitting a grant application or publication, and on datasets, research blogs, presentations, business cards and personal websites. This will help records become visible to ORCiD and in time will make it easy to import varied types of works to your ORCID profile automatically. It will also help transfer works information between systems that ORCID is connected to. See guidance on how to display your ORCID identifier found under the heading 'Guidance for publications'.

ORCID and Researchfish

You are now able to import your outputs from your ORCID profile into Researchfish, to then be able to attribute it to a grant.

  1. Log-in to your Researchfish account.
  2. Click the "Connect to ORCID" link on the top right corner of the screen, under your name.
  3. Sign-in to your ORCID account, or register for an account.

The two accounts are now linked. Outputs added to your ORCID profile will be available for selection in Researchfish. In addition, grants from your Researchfish profile are added to your ORCID record.