An ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor iD) is a unique, persistent identifier for researchers that helps distinguish your research activities and outputs from those of other researchers with similar names to ensure you get credit for your work. It aims to connect researchers with all their research outputs, including publications, grants and datasets.
ORCID is a non-profit organisation supported by a global community of organisations including universities, publishers, funders, professional associations, and other stakeholders in the research ecosystem. Together, this global community has turned ORCID into a tool that links the many available author ID numbers under a single identifier and allows researcher data to be shared between systems. This persistent digital identifier acts like a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) for researchers that can be used to link all of an individual's research outputs and feed them to other research systems.
What are the benefits of having an ORCID iD?
It makes your research profile unique.
- Connects you with all of your research activities and outputs
- Eliminates confusion over researchers with similar names
- Ensures your profile is continuous, even if you change institutions
It can save you time managing information about your publications and grants.
- Saves time by reducing repetitive data entry into research systems
- Allows you to automate adding your publications to systems like ROS
- Gives you complete control over which systems can access your information
- Allows you to push your ROS publications list back to ORCID for reuse in other systems without re-keying data
Which organisations use ORCID?
- UNSW collects ORCID iDs via the research outputs system ROS and is part of the Australian ORCID Consortium
- The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Australian Research Council (ARC) encourage all researchers applying for funding to have an ORCID iD
- Many publishers are now requiring ORCID iDs during publication submission
- Many of the large indexing databases including Scopus, Web of Science and Crossref support ORCID
How do I get an ORCID iD?
Log in to ROS and navigate to My Profile > Settings > Automatic Claiming. Click the ORCID link and you will be prompted to enter your existing ORCID or register a new one. It is quick and easy to register and connect your research to your new ORCID iD. By registering via ROS you will also link the ORCID iD to your ROS profile. Once set up as a trusted source, ROS can claim publications from your ORCID profile automatically for you. Note: ROS will only claim publications connected to your ORCID profile via third-party services (such as CrossRef, Dimensions, Web of Science). It will not claim records that have been manually added to your ORCID profile. Don't forget to use your ORCID iD on every research activity or output to ensure your ORCID iD connects all of your research.
You can also set up your ROS profile to automatically send your publications back to ORCID. To do this, navigate to My Profile > Settings > ORCID Settings and connect your ORCID iD. You can then choose to permit ROS to read from and write publication data to your ORCID account. This option will help keep your ORCID up-to-date with all of your research activities and will boost the visibility of research outputs not found in major publishing databases, including non-traditional research outputs. You can control what data is sent to ORCID from ROS.
Already have an ORCID iD?
Add it to your ROS profile to improve the accuracy of your search settings.
Need help?
Contact your Outreach Librarian for assistance.