ORCIDs

ORCID, short for Open Researcher and Contributor ID, is a non-profit initiative that provides a persistent digital identifier for researchers. Its primary purpose is to disambiguate individuals with similar or identical names and to connect them with their scholarly outputs, affiliations, and other contributions over the course of their careers. The system is designed to remain stable across name changes, relocations, and varying institutional affiliations.

An ORCID iD is a 16-digit identifier formatted as four groups of four digits separated by hyphens, for example 0000-0002-1825-0097. Each iD links to an ORCID record that can store the researcher’s name variants, employment history, education, affiliations, publications, funding, and other research activities. Record visibility is configurable; researchers can make their information public, private, or shared with specific organizations or applications.

Usage and adoption are broad. Researchers can claim and attach their iD to publications, grant applications, and profiles in institutional repositories. Publishers, funders, and research institutions frequently integrate ORCID iDs into manuscript submission systems, application processes, and metadata workflows to improve attribution and interoperability. The data in ORCID records can be connected to external identifiers from publishers, Crossref, DataCite, PubMed, and other databases, enhancing interoperability across systems through open APIs.

Governance and privacy are managed by the ORCID Foundation and its member organizations. Individuals retain control over what parts of their record are public and who can add or update information. While many researchers adopt ORCID to ensure accurate attribution, awareness and usage vary by field and region. Individuals can create and maintain their own ORCID record for free.