UC Davis Health
Clinical and Translational Science Center

ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) | UC Davis CTSC

Investigator Resources

ORCID® (Open Researcher and Contributor ID)

Your name is key to establishing a unique public profile throughout your research and academic career for publications and research activities. But if your name is a common name or if you have changed your name, or if you are affiliated with several organizations over your career, there may be multiple name variants associated with your publications and research activities.

ORCID provides a universal, non-proprietary solution by linking your publications/research activities to you.

ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes authors from other authors and through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between authors and their professional activities ensuring that their work is recognized.

ORCID is linked among other identifier systems such as the Scopus Author ID, ResearcherID and LinkedIn; publishers such as Nature and APS; and funding agencies such as NIH and the Wellcome Trust. This means that ORCID is not limited to a specific platform and is a non-proprietary means of establishing your author name.

Register for an ORCID ID

Registering for an ORCID iD helps to promote discoverability among multiple information platforms and workflows as well as establishing a unique presence for researchers and scholars, regardless of name variants or affiliation history.

Registration for the ORCID iD is free and privacy settings are controlled by the individual. To register, complete a short registration form and select Register.

Visit the ORCID website for more information:

The content below has been adapted with permission from Bernard Becker Medical Library and ORCID.

  • Establish a unique presence for yourself, regardless of name variants or affiliation history.
  • Distinguish yourself from other authors especially if you have a common name.
  • Ensure that you receive credit for your research activities and outputs throughout your research career
  • Use your ORCID profile page to share information about your research activities and outputs.
  • Some publishers require ORCID iDs for authors before submitting a manuscript for peer review.
  • Some publishers require ORCID iDs of reviewers.
  • Some funding agencies embed ORCID iDs in funding workflows.
  • Auto-populate a NIH Biosketch with information in your ORCID profile via SciENcv in your My NCBI account.
  • Some professional societies and organizations integrate ORCID iDs as part of membership and meeting workflows.
  • Some databases embed ORCID IDs in author profiles.

How can you make the most of your ORCID iD? When and where can you use it? And why should you do so?

ORCID is used by:

  • Databases (Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, etc.)
  • Publishers (Elsevier, PLoS, Elsevier, Nature, etc.)
  • Publishing Platforms (ScholarONE)
  • Professional Societies (ACS, IEEE, AAAS, etc.)
  • Funding Agencies (NIH, CERN, Autism Speaks, etc.)
  • Software/Platforms (Altmetric, FigShare, CrossRef, etc.)
  • Biosketches (NIH, NSF, etc.)

ORCID has a delegate feature available to help with managing ORCID accounts. "Trusted Individuals" can be added as delegates to an ORCID account to allow for editing and updating of an ORCID account and profile. Note that Trusted Individuals must register for an ORCID account.

More information:

CrossRef helps you with auto-populating your Works section, by importing both newly published and past works.

Importing Future Works

Two easy steps will enable your ORCID record to self-update every time you publish.

  1. Submit your ORCID iD every time you publish.
  2. Grant permission to auto-update (you only have to do this once).

After the first time you include your ORCID iD when publishing, you will receive an email asking for permission to enable Auto-Update via your ORCID Inbox. If you have previously published with your ORCID iD, you may already have this message waiting for you there. You can can access your ORCID Inbox by logging into your ORCID record. Please note that this message will only be sent to your ORCID inbox, unless you have set up your account to also send notifications to your primary account email address. Once you grant permissions, your ORCID iD will be automatically updated every time you publish!

Important: Auto-Update will be activated only after you submit a manuscript for publication with your ORCID iD and after you grant permissions to the resulting CrossRef request found in your ORCID inbox.

More information about auto-updates is found here: https://support.orcid.org/hc/en-us/articles/360006894594-Auto-updates-in-third-party-systems-DataCite

Importing Past Works

CrossRef Metadata Search is an easy way to bulk-import your works from a reliable source. Once enabled, CrossRef uses information from your ORCID record to find and present you with a list of articles that you may have authored. The results include a button to add the works you select to your ORCID record.

Step-by-step guidance on using CrossRef:

Instructions provided courtesy of the UC Davis University Library.