ORCID

 

Books have ISBNs in order to exactly and reliably identify the exact versions, from the moment of publication. Think of an ORCID ID as the equivalent of an ISBN - but for people. It identifies exactly and reliably who has done research or other activities, making sure i always leads to the correct researcher.

For this reason, publishers and funders have begun making ORCID IDs mandatory for any output published or funded by them, and for grant proposals submitted to them.

ORCID is designed to take admin work off your shoulders, by giving you a unique means of identifying you as a contributor to the full range of academic outputs. It is a free service that provides an overview of all your research outputs, grants and other activities, connects to other applications and – when it is time – can help provide you with the data you need for the REF, promotions, or funding. It is a fantastic time saver at those points, as everything you need will already be in one place.

Register for an ORCiD ID for free.

 

What is ORCID for? 

What is ORCID not for? 
  • Increase visibility of your research activities
  • Show an overview over your professional activities 
  • Links all activities, even if they were published under abbreviated names 
  • Feeds out to databases that provide citation metrics and alternative metrics (e.g. Dimensions and Altmetrics Explorer) 
  • Populate your Elements profile and vice versa if you give ORCID the rights permissions Providing an ORCID ID is rapidly becoming mandatory amongst publishers and funders. 
  • Assigning an ORCiD to a project: We know it’s tempting to create one ID for a project or a group of researchers, however this is now what it was created to be. An ORCID ID identifies a person, not a project or paper (they have other identifiers), so your account would not work to its full potential if used this way 
  • Getting a new one for each new publication: The idea of an ORCID ID is that it is connected to one person like an ISBN is connected to one edition of a book. Assigning more than one per person defeats the point of being able to have one record for all activities. If you have accidentally created a second ID, the ORCID customer service is happy to help, visit the FAQs and instructions. 
  • Keeping it secret: ORCID IDs are made to be shared. They identify you as a researcher, show the work you’ve done and, crucially, will help connect you with other researchers and partners. You would share the ISBN of a book if you wanted to make sure your opposite found the exact right one, and that’s how ORCID IDs work, too. Put it in your email signature, on any business cards, in your bio information on social media, with every output you publish, and so on. 

What is an ORCID ID? 

People use “ORCID” or “ORCID ID” interchangeably, but what they’re talking about is a 16-digit number and the associated record (sometimes called a profile) that stores automatic links to all your research, and links all your research with you. By allowing trusted organizations to add your research information to your ORCID record, you can spend more time conducting your research and less time managing it. (Source) 

Just as books have ISBNs to identify them, and data and articles have DOIs, people can have an ORCID ID.  

This ID is a number sequence just like ISBNs and DOIs that is assigned to a person, and it can connect your publications, professional activities, affiliations, etc. by this unique number instead of just by your name. This has some great advantages: it means, any spelling or abbreviation of the name, any language version, or even a name change, would still connect the correct activities to the correct person.  

See this example:

(What is ORCID? from ORCID on Vimeo)

Sofia Maria Hernandez Garcia’s name could appear in different publications as: 

Sofia M. Hernandez Garcia, S. Hernandez Garcia, S. M. H. Garcia, Sofia Garcia 

This means, if one of the variations is being searched for, all or some others might be left out, not providing a full picture of Sofia Maria’s work. Her ORCID ID however will be able to connect all her work. 

In turn, this means checking one place when looking for a full record of publications, funding, qualifications etc. when needed for applications, the REF or funding.

How do I get an ORCID ID? 

You can register for an ORCID ID for free on https://orcid.org/register. You can connect it to your Elements profile to maximise the interconnection of profiles.

What is an ORCID Affiliation Invitation?

The library at the University of Liverpool is making use of a tool provided by ORCID that allows you as the account holder to gratn permission to the library to adjust your affiliation, to make sure you are correctly connected to the University of Liverpool, making sure non of your hard work gets lost or misattributed.

Read more about the ORCID Affiliation Invitation in this blog post.

How do I connect Elements and ORCID?


  1. log in to Liverpool Elements
  2. click on the menu in the top left (three lines)
  3. navigate to Settings > Automatic Claiming
  4. click on the ORCID symbol (a new window will open)
  5. log in with your ORCID credentials or create an ORCID ID if you do not have one already
  6. grant access.

 

How do I connect ORCID and Scopus?

Note: You need to ahve published with a Scopus-indexed journal to have a Scopus Author ID. This is not something you can create yourself, it is created for you.

1. log in to your ORCID profile.

2. on your dashboard, scroll down to 'Works'.

3. click 'Add'

4. click 'Search & link'

5. in the pop-up, scroll down to 'Scopus - Elsevier' and click on it

6. enter your last anem and first name and start the search. If you have published in a Scopus-indexed journal before, your profile will come up and you can connect the two.

Help, I'm not sure if I have an ORCID ID already!

If you are unsure whether you have already got an ORCID ID, follow the advice in ORCID's FAQs. Do not sign up for a new ID - you should only ever have one ORCID ID, as it clearly identifies you.