5 questions and answers about ORCID iD:
Distinguishing yourself as a researcher
Richard Bradly Harris and John Zepernick, MS
ThinkSCIENCE, Inc. | Publishing

As researchers, we work towardvarious goals, such as improving
patient care, curing diseases,
advancing technology, exploring
nature, and developing theories
and ideas to make sense of ourworld. In these efforts, it isimportant that researchers
receive recognition for their workand control their professional
information.
However, controlling your identity and information is not always easy. Perhaps you
have a common name, your name has changed after marriage, or your name isdisplayed differently across various publications, websites, and other systems.
The ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor) iD has been developed as a solution
to these problems. Similar to how DOI (digital object identifier) provides a unique,persistent identifier for publications, ORCID iD does the same for researchers. Your
ORCID iD makes it easy to let people know who you are.
In this article, we answer 5 common questions about ORCID iD and how it can help
you in your research.

1. What is an ORCID iD?
An ORCID iD is a unique, persistent identifier that makes it easier to link youridentity and publications, ensuring that you are credited properly for your work
(including peer reviews you complete). Over the last decade, adoption of ORCID byCopyright 2020 © ThinkSCIENCE, Inc.
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publishers, funding organizations, and research organizations has become morewidespread. Chances are, if you are looking to publish, your target journal will allow
you to associate your ORCID iD with your manuscript—if it doesn’t outright require
you to do so.
After you’ve created an ORCID iD, your profile will function as a catalogue of all of
your publications, professional biography, professional network and social links,and more. For an example of how your ORCID profile might represent you, see
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1825-0097.

2. Why sign up for an ORCID iD?
•An ORCID iD is free and easy to sign up for. You can create your own iD in justa few minutes on the ORCID website.

•ORCID is becoming more widely adopted and supported. ORCID is supportedby over 1100 publishers, funders, and other organizations invested in theresearch industry across the globe, and has over time become accepted andestablished within the academic community.

•An ORCID iD is increasingly becoming required for publication. Many journals
and publishers require or at least recommend authors to provide an ORCID iD
at submission. This is a good thing—as more and more publishers enableauthors to link their ORCID iD to their work, it becomes that much easier forauthors to associate their professional output with their professional identity.

•Your ORCID profile can show a range of professional activities, not just yourpublished works. Your ORCID profile can highlight your wider efforts andcontributions to the research community in relation to peer review activities
and membership and volunteer activities (e.g., as a member of an editorial
board or committee, or as conference organizer or panel leader).

•Your ORCID iD can distinguish you and your work from that of otherresearchers with the same name. As pointed out in a recent Nature article by
Sheherazade and Ardiantiono, ORCID codes can be especially helpful for
researchers in certain cultures who use one name, not a first and last name, toensure their work is clearly credited to them.

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3. What organizations require an ORCID iD?
Many journals request that authors provide their ORCID iD on manuscript files orwithin the online submission system. In recent years, however, the number ofjournals that outright require an ORCID iD has increased. Often journals andpublishers require an ORCID iD for only the corresponding author, but some, such as
JMIR Publications and ScienceOpen, require an ORCID iD for all named authors.
Today, over 7,000 journals are already collecting ORCID iDs from corresponding
authors, up from over 1,500 in 2017. And this number is only going to increase. At
the end of 2015, the ORCID website published an open letter where publishers canpledge their commitment to requiring ORCID iDs for authors. Within a year, 25
publishers and scholarly associations had signed this letter, 16 of whom had already
implemented this requirement by the end of 2016. Now, over 90 publishers andjournals have signed, including some of the largest in the industry, such as PLOS,
Springer Nature, Wiley, and SAGE Publications. This list is being updated all thetime (with new signatories as recently as August 5, 2020). You can view the full listof signatories here.
Publishers aren’t the only organizations that have started to implement ORCID. Infact, many funders now recommend or require the use of ORCID iDs in their grantapplication systems. A list of funders that have issued a policy or statement related
to ORCID requirements can be found on the ORCID website.
There is strong support for the adoption of ORCID iDs by publishers and otherprofessional societies within the academic community. A 2015 survey reported ashigh as 72% of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing that ORCID
requirements would be beneficial for the research community (compared with 21%
neutral responses and only 7% disagreeing or strongly disagreeing).

4. How do I get an ORCID iD?
Simply follow this link and complete the form there. Remember the username andpassword that you set because you will need them to manage your ORCID profile(e.g., to update your information or to manage your visibility settings), and also tolink your ORCID iD within some online submission systems.

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5. How do I associate my ORCID iD with my work?
You’ll most often associate your iD with your manuscript during the submission
process. For example, ScholarOne, a popular online submission platform used bymany journals, requires authors to actually log into ORCID from within the systemitself, securely linking their ORCID iD with their ScholarOne account.
Some journals will request that authors also list ORCID iDs on the title page of themanuscript file. For example, the Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association (APA), Seventh Edition requests that authors list ORCIDiDs in a footnote on the title page, including the iD symbol followed by a hyperlink
to the ORCID record.
The ORCID site itself strongly encourages the use of the iD symbol and provides
guidelines for displaying it on the manuscript. There are three ways to do this.
•

The iD icon followed by the full iD URL formatted as a hyperlink (as used inAPA style):
Josiah Carberry https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1825-0097•

The iD icon alone, formatted as a hyperlink to the iD URL:
Josiah Carberry•

At the very least, ORCID guidelines recommend including the full iD URL on
the title page, formatted as a hyperlink:
Josiah Carberry https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1825-0097

While many journals will allow you to add ORCID iDs to your manuscript at any time
during revision or even at acceptance, be aware that some journals allow them only
at initial submission. For example, the Instructions for Authors of PNAS state thefollowing (emphasis ours):"Author Affiliation: Include department, institution, and complete address,
with the ZIP/postal code, for each author. Use superscripts to match
authors with institutions. Multiple affiliations are allowed. Authors arestrongly encouraged to supply their ORCID. For proper authentication,authors must provide their ORCIDs at submission and are not permitted
to add ORCIDs on proofs."

Concluding remarks
ORCID iD has grown from 50,000 users in 2012 to more than 9.7 million today, and
it is becoming an essential part of the research and scholarly publication. We hope
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Page 4 of 5that the information in this article will be helpful, especially for researchers who are
new to ORCID iD.
If you have any questions about ORCID or any other part of the research andpublication process, we are here to help.
Read the article online for the most recent version

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