Content from How to Create an ORCID

Last updated on 2025-03-12 | Edit this page

Overview

Questions

  • How can I create or update my ORCID profile?

Objectives

  • Describe to someone how to create or update an ORCID record

What is an ORCID?

ORCID stands for Open Researcher and Contributor ID. It is a 16-digit unique identifier for scholarly authors. You can think of it as similar to an online curriculum vitae. It can be very helpful for:

  • Disambiguation of authors with similar names
  • Tracking individual author name changes
  • Submissions to journals and grant applications

Creating and maintaining an ORCID record allows you to claim your scholarly online presence. You have the autonomy to list your works, grants, affiliations, etc. On a larger scale, departments may be interested in their faculty having well maintained records to aid in tracking of scholarly output. ORCID has an integration with many different tools online which we will cover in the next episodes. By curating the ORCID record, researchers can save time later with these integrations that will auto-populate other things they need.

ORCID is a nonprofit organization with member institutions from all over the world. You do not need to belong to a member institution to set up an ORCID for yourself, and individual ORCID records can be created and maintained at no charge.

ORCID and Funders

Funders are increasingly requiring ORCID IDs be submitted as part of grant proposal packages. Do you know of any funding agencies or foundations already requiring this? Do you know when the requirement took effect?

  • January 2023: National Science Foundation (United States)
  • May 2025: National Institutes of Health (United States)

Steps to Create an ORCID

  1. Go to the ORCID homepage: https://orcid.org/
  2. Click on “Sign in / Register” in the top right corner
  3. If you already have an ORCID record, try signing in
  4. If you do not have an ORCID record, click “Register now”.
  5. Add a backup email to your account so you can always retrieve your account

“ACCOUNT ALREADY EXISTS” Message

If an account with your name already exists, you may see a window pop up asking if it is you. If so, follow the prompts to retrieve this account.

Linking to your ORCID record

You have created your ORCID record!

Place a hyperlink to your record in a few of the following places:

  • CV header
  • Email signature
  • Social media bio
  • Personal/institutional webpage
  • Any current works in progress (scholarly papers, posters, presentations)

CAUTION

If you have duplicate records, you can contact ORCID directly and let them know which record should be closed.

Visibility Settings

In your account settings, there is a section called “Visibility”. You can select the default for new items added to your ORCID record. We recommend selecting “Everyone”. ORCID is most helpful to you and other users when it is populated for everyone to read. While populating your profile, you will notice that you can change the visibility of each individual item on your record. For example. You can make one of your emails public, while making your back up email viewable to “only me”.

Populating your record

While logged into your profile:

  • Edit the “Names” box to add your preferred “Published name”, as well as some “Also known as” names to help people find your record.

  • Add your affiliations:

    • Add current employment to make it easier for people to identify your record from the ORCID search results page. Adding past employment could be helpful as well.
    • Consider if some of your affiliations should go under “Education and Qualifications”

  • Try adding a few of your works

    • Enter any type of scholarly product you have authored (posters, conference talks, articles, research tools, etc.)
    • Utilize the uploading tools to populate for you, like “Add DOI” or “Add PubMed ID”
    • In the future, submitting works with your ORCID to the publisher will autopopulate your page when the work is published.

Key Points

  • ORCID is an open, non-propietary system for claiming your scholarly online presence.
  • Use these steps to set up an ORCID to be usable and helpful to others.

Content from Understanding ORCID

Last updated on 2025-01-29 | Edit this page

Overview

Questions

  • How can having an ORCID benefit scholars through practicing open science?

Objectives

  • Describe author disambiguation and why it matters (makes your work Findable)
  • List the range of scholarly outputs you can track (makes your work Accessible)
  • Introduce systems where ORCID can be integrated (makes your record Interoperable)
  • Understand how ORCID is institution agnostic (makes your record Reusable)

ORCID as Open Science

When an ORCID record is populated and shared publicly, it becomes a powerful mechanism for structural change in scholarly communication. Benefits to scholars accumulate over the course of their careers, and what initially might look like one more account with the same information as their CV can actually free them from tedious, repetitive tasks. The more an ORCID is understood as a tool for making scholarly online presence robust and persistent, the more valuable it becomes to each scholar. Open science advances as the scholarly community collectively experiences these benefits.

In this lesson we will look at the major benefits of maximizing an ORCID’s effectiveness, with the purpose of forming concepts to support advocacy and promotion within our institutional communities.

Author Disambiguation

As the number of scholars publishing work increases, the problem of telling authors apart from each other becomes more important to solve. When only internal or proprietary systems hold authoritative metadata that is verified by the authors, librarians, or other trusted parties, the value of their work is diminished. Especially as scholars move from institution to institution, and affiliations are listed in a variety of ways, records become harder to track. Databases which aggregate journals may not be able to accurately distinguish among many authors with the same name. Departments may not be able to track their publishing activity. Researchers working in adjacent areas may not find each other to collaborate. Recruiters may not be aware of the full scope of a researcher’s contribution to their field.

An ORCID disambiguates among scholars with similar or identical names by assigning one persistent, unique identifier per person. Each identifier is a string of numbers generated and stored by ORCID. This identifier serves as the focal point of other relevant information such as affiliation and scholarly works. Scholarly works become more findable when a person is matched with an ORCID.

RANDOM NAMES, REAL AUTHORS?

  1. Use Namey to generate a random name: https://namey.muffinlabs.com/
  2. Enter this name into ORCID’s search box: https://orcid.org/
  3. Put quotes around the text so that it is read as a string
  4. Hit enter. How many results did you get?

Try doing this with your own name, or the name of a colleague. Identical names can appear to be the same person, but ORCID gives researchers a persistent Unique Identifier (UID) that keeps them distinctive in any system that integrates it.

QUESTIONS:

  • Do people at your institution use more than one term or set of terms to refer to their place of employment, their unit or department?
  • How many variations of listing your institutional affiliation have you seen?
  • Is there a standard way of listing affiliation at your institution?

NAME CHANGES

What are some reasons an author might want to edit how their name appears in connection with their publications?

  • Co-authors might submit your name in a way you do not prefer
  • Your legal name may change over time
  • Branding: a standard name standardizes your scholarly publishing online presence

Range of Scholarly Products

Different institutions and systems ask for scholarly works to be presented in different formats. The way scholarly works are grouped may differ according to information organization decisions made by an enterprise software provider, or a policy-maker responding to institutional priorities. This discourages diversity in scholarly production because it does not allow exploration or development of emerging formats. It also may overlook established discipline-specific forms of scholarly works. Subscription-based databases, as well as openly accessible databases like PubMedCentral, and webcrawlers like Google Scholar, are all only as complete as the records of scholarly works that have been created, and many systems do not allow the full range of scholarly works to be tracked or recorded.

ORCID records can minimize time spent on repetitive tasks through automatic updates. They can also be a tool for creating a complete record of scholarly works through manual addition of more uncommon scholarly products. There are more than 40 types of works available to choose when adding a work to an ORCID profile.

ORCID Record Scholarly Work Categories:

Scholarly Works

QUESTIONS:

  • Are there any categories which are new to you, when conceptualizing what counts as a scholarly product?
  • Is there a category you would like to see added?
  • Does a work that you have not added to your CV or institutional tracking system match up with an ORCID category?

Putting the records of an author’s scholarly products in one place that persists across systems helps make their work accessible. As more systems integrate ORCID, it also streamlines access to the full scope of scholarship that has been done. If you find one work by an author, you can quickly find their other works.

Integrations

As a standalone system, an ORCID is not necessarily more valuable than any other scholarly identifier. Because it can both integrate and be integrated into other systems, an ORCID can serve as a key to access a scholarly presence controlled by the scholar. Additionally, librarians or other trusted parties can be added to profiles so that things like standardized affiliations can be curated. Many other systems which track publications have integrated ORCIDs.

An ORCID that is connected to other systems makes author identification interoperable. A link to an ORCID record in a publication, repository, or Research Information Management System (RIMS) can validate that the correct person has been associated with a work they actually authored.

Minimize Repetitive Tasks

By connecting to some of the major publication tracking systems, scholars can minimize the time they spend entering the same information about their published works over and over in different systems, draining cognitive resources that could be assigned to higher value tasks. Fewer cases of repetitive data entry make errors less likely, and provide a validated version of a scholarly record.

When librarians are added to ORCID records as trusted parties, or when Research Information Management Systems (RIMS) are connected to populate ORCID records as sholars add information to their institutional-level recporting systems, ORCID makes this data reusable. It can be verified by other tracking systems, and centralize a persistent record of a scholar’s work. Because an ORCID is institution-agnostic, it will follow the scholar when they change institutional affiliation. We will look at how to connect some of these systems in the next episode.

WHAT DOES INTEGRATION INTO A RIMS LOOK LIKE?

  • A researcher goes to a home page for an institution’s ORCID integration
  • They log in to their institution’s system with their institutional credentials
  • They log in to ORCID with their ORCID credentials
  • They see a window pop up that asks them to authorize access between their ORCID and institutional system
  • They see a confirmation that the authorization is successful

Behind the scenes, an institution’s IT department will need to configure the logins before this can work. This kind of integration can also be developed further so that works from ORCID records push back out to researcher profile pages in institutional systems.

Key Points

  • The value of an ORCID goes up over the course of a scholar’s career
  • Connecting an ORCID to other systems maximizes its benefit to scholarly online presence
  • ORCID records help make scholarship FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable)

Content from Connecting Systems

Last updated on 2025-01-28 | Edit this page

Overview

Questions

  • How can you connect your ORCID profile with CrossRef, DataCite, and Dimensions platforms?
  • What are the benefits of enabling auto-updates for your ORCID record?
  • How do different systems handle the integration with ORCID?
  • What steps should you take to maintain accurate records across all platforms?

Objectives

  • Explain the benefits of connecting ORCID to external systems for research visibility and impact tracking
  • Configure the connection between ORCID and Crossref to automatically import publication metadata
  • Set up the integration between ORCID and DataCite to include dataset and software citations
  • Set up and use the integration between ORCID and Dimensions to import publication metadata and to claim publications and update the ORCID record to enrich profile data with additional scholarly content

Automating Repetitive Tasks With ORCID

Managing research outputs effectively across different platforms can be challenging for researchers. While ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier for researchers, its full potential comes from its ability to integrate with other scholarly systems. This episode focuses on connecting your ORCID profile with three key systems: CrossRef, DataCite, and Dimensions.

CrossRef’s auto-update feature automatically adds your published articles to your ORCID record, DataCite ensures your datasets and other research outputs are properly attributed, and Dimensions provides an additional way to manually add publications to your ORCID record through its ‘Add to ORCID’ feature. These integrations help create a comprehensive record of your research contributions.

By connecting ORCID with these systems, you can:

  • Save time by reducing manual data entry
  • Ensure accurate attribution of your work
  • Increase the visibility of your research outputs
  • Maintain up-to-date records across multiple platforms
  • Track your research impact more effectively

Throughout this episode, you’ll learn how to set up and manage these integrations, understand their features, and troubleshoot common issues. These integrations will help streamline your research workflow and enhance your digital presence in the scholarly ecosystem.

Configuring ORCID Integrations

For each integration, write down the steps you would take to enable auto-update feature that automatically updated your ORCID records with new publications. If you have access to these accounts, you can perform the actual steps. These integrations will help you maintain an up-to-date record of your research outputs without manual intervention.

Connecting ORCID to Crossref

  1. Provide your ORCID when submitting a paper to a journal. Most publishing platforms allow to enter your ORCID iD in the submission system.
  2. Once the paper gets published, the publisher will register it with Crossref and include your ORCID iD in the metadata
  3. Check your ORCID inbox after you publish. You’ll receive a notification in your ORCID inbox with the subject “Crossref has made changes to your ORCID record”
  4. Authorize Crossref Auto-updates. Once you receive the notification, grant Crossref permission to update your record.
  5. Optional. Manually link Crossref to ORCID

Connecting ORCID to DataCite

Method 1: Through your ORCID record

  1. Log in to your ORCID account
  2. Navigate to your ORCID record
  3. Find the “Works” section
  4. Click on “Add”
  5. Select “Search & Link”
  6. Look for and select the DataCite option
  7. Grant permissions to DataCite when prompted

Method 2: Through DataCite

  1. Go to DataCite Profiles (https://profiles.datacite.org/)
  2. Sign in with Globus. Select your institution, or sign in with your ORCID.
  3. Go to Settings (click on your name to access Settings menu).
  4. Click “Get ORCID Token” button (your screen should then refresh and this button will be relabeled as “Delete ORCID Token”)
  5. Confirm that in the Settings menu that after “Auto-Update” you see the words “is enabled” (if not click on the “Update” button and tick the “Auto-Update is enabled” box)

Connecting ORCID to Dimensions

  1. Go to the Dimensions platform (https://app.dimensions.ai).
  2. Log in to your Dimensions account (or create one).
  3. Look for an option to connect your ORCID. In your account settings click on “ORCID Information” link.
  4. Click on the option to connect your ORCID.

Populating your ORCID with Dimensions

Dimensions offer a streamlined way to add publications to your ORCID records through its ‘Add to ORCID’ feature. While not automatic like CrossRef’s updated, this manual process gives you control over which publications appear in your ORCID profile. In this exercise, you’ll learn how to use Dimensions to search for your publications and add them to your ORCID record using the platform’s integration features. Dimensions is particularly effective at identifying conference proceedings publications, making it a valuable tool for researchers who regularly present at conferences. This manual adding feature ensures you can easily find and add conference papers to your ORCID record.

CLAIM YOUR PUBLICATIONS IN DIMENSIONS

  1. Search for your publications in Dimensions by either:
    • Entering your name
    • Looking up your profile
    • Searching for specific paper titles
  2. Once you find your publications, you can claim them one at a time. Find the ‘Add to ORCID’ button below each publication. Review the confirmation prompt: “Are you sure you want to add this work to your ORCID record?” and click to confirm. The button status will change to ‘In your ORCID record’ indicating successful addition.
  3. Go to your ORCID record and check your ‘Works’ section. Locate the new publication entry. Verify that “Source: Dimensions” appears with the entry

NOTE

You can add publications from both search results and publication detail pages.

ADDING GRANTS WITH ORCID’s WIZARD

ORCID’s Search and Link wizard can be used to select existing grants and add them to your ORCID record. Here are the steps:

  1. Log in to your ORCID account
  2. Go to the Funding section
  3. Click “Add funding”
  4. Select “Search & Link”
  5. Choose “Dimensions Wizard”
  6. Search by your name to find associated grants, or by Grant Title. An asterisk works as a wildcard character here (e.g., “music therap*” finds “music therapy” and “music therapists”).
  7. Choose grants from search results and click “Next” and then “Submit to ORCID” button.

ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

  • How might this auto-update feature save you time in maintaining your ORCID record?
  • What is the key difference between how Crossref or DataCite auto-updates work compared to Dimensions’ publication adding feature?
  • Why might you need both automatic (Crossref or DataCite) and manual (Dimensions) methods for managing your ORCID record?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  • Have you encountered any challenges while setting up these integrations?
  • What benefits do you expect to see from maintaining these connections?
  • How often should you check your ORCID record for accurate updates?
  • What steps can you take to ensure your future publications are automatically added to your ORCID record?

Key Points

  • Connecting ORCID to external systems automates the process of keeping your research profile up-to-date and comprehensive
  • The Crossref integration ensures that journal articles and conference proceedings are accurately attributed to your ORCID profile without manual entry
  • Linking ORCID with DataCite allows for proper credit and visibility of non-traditional research outputs like datasets and software
  • The Dimensions connection provides access to enhanced your ORCID record by adding publications and grant information.
  • These integrations support better author disambiguation and improve information accuracy across the research ecosystem
  • Regular maintenance of these connections is crucial to ensure the continued accuracy and completeness of your ORCID profile