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Glossary · Publication and ethics

What is an ORCID iD?

An ORCID iD is a free, persistent digital identifier that belongs to one researcher. Its 16-digit number points to a record that gathers the person’s works, grants and affiliations and separates them from namesakes, and the record holder decides which parts other people can see.

ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) identifies a person, not a paper or a dataset. iDs are randomly assigned and cannot be changed, and the same iD stays with you when your name, employer or country changes. The format is four blocks of four characters joined by hyphens, for example 0000-0002-1825-0097. The last character is a checksum: a digit from 0 to 9, or an X standing for 10. It ensures that the other 15 digits form a coherent iD.

ORCID’s display guidelines prefer one form for links to records: the iD icon together with the complete address beginning https://orcid.org/. Registration is free for individuals, and the record holder sets the visibility of each item. Some submission and grant systems can pre-fill forms when you sign in with your ORCID, and the ICMJE encourages authors to list their iDs. An iD typed in by hand counts as unauthenticated; ORCID asks systems to collect iDs through its own sign-in workflow whenever possible.

An ORCID iD names a person, while a DOI names a work such as an article, dataset or book. When a record is linked with Crossref or DataCite, new publications can be added to it automatically.

Example

In a hypothetical manuscript submission, the author signs in to the journal’s system with their ORCID account. If the system uses ORCID’s authentication workflow, the iD is not typed by hand and is recorded as authenticated. ORCID’s own documentation uses https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1825-0097 as a sample; it belongs to a demonstration account for a fictitious person.

A point to watch

An ORCID iD and a DOI are not interchangeable: the iD identifies a person, the DOI a work. Nor is a new record needed after changing institution or email address; ORCID says one iD serves a whole career, and a duplicate record can be removed in Account Settings.

Related terms

Guides and tools

Sources

  1. ORCID for researchers — ORCID
  2. Researcher FAQ (Why do some ORCID iDs end with an X?) — ORCID
  3. ORCID iD display guidelines — ORCID
  4. ICMJE Recommendations: Preparing a manuscript for submission to a medical journal (title page) — ICMJE
  5. ORCID public record 0000-0002-1825-0097 (demonstration account), biography field via the ORCID public API — ORCID, 2016