ORCID

What is ORCID?

ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a nonproprietary alphanumeric code to uniquely identify scientific and other academic authors and contributors. ORCID provides an identifier for individuals to use with their name as they engage in research, scholarship, and innovation activities. ORCID is a not-for-profit organisation, sustained by fees from member organisations.

Why should I register for an ORCID Id?

Author identifiers are particularly important, as a particular scholar’s contributions to the scientific literature can be hard to recognise, as personal names are rarely unique, can change (e.g. through marriage), and may have cultural differences in name order or abbreviations. Several types of author identifiers exist; however the ORCID system is widely regarded as the best, and uptake of ORCID is now growing rapidly in the UK and internationally.

Grant-making bodies such as the Wellcome Trust and NIHR (UK) have begun to mandate that applicants for funding provide an ORCID identifier. There are also recommendations that ORCIDs are considered for author identification in the next HEFCE REF assessment.

"Improving the data infrastructure that supports research information management

There is a need for greater transparency and openness in research data infrastructure. A set of principles should be developed for technologies, practices and cultures that can support open, trustworthy research information management. These principles should be adopted by funders, data providers, administrators and researchers as a foundation for further work. (UK HE Funding Bodies, RCUK, Jisc, data providers, managers, administrators).

The UK research system should take full advantage of ORCID as its preferred system of unique identifiers. ORCID iDs should be mandatory for all researchers in the next REF. Funders and HEIs should utilise ORCID for grant applications, management and reporting platforms, and the benefits of ORCID need to be better communicated to researchers."

Wilsdon, J., et al. (2015). The Metric Tide: Report of the Independent Review of the Role of Metrics in Research Assessment and Management. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.4929.1363.

Fourteen research funders in six continents are now ORCID members, with half of these joining in 2015: the Australian Research Council, CONCYTEC (Peru), FWF (Austria), MQ (UK), National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia), National Research Foundation (South Africa), and Research Councils UK.

When trawling for publications to import from Scopus into Pure you can now use your ORCID id to uniquely identify yourself.

How do I register and add my ORCID id to my Pure Profile?

As a Pure user you can register for or add your existing ORCID ID directly from Pure. To do this click on "Edit Profile" and then click on “Create or Connect your ORCID ID"...

Create or Connect your ORCID