Scholarly Profiles: ORCID

Open Researcher and Contributor IDs (ORCIDs) are free, unique digital identifiers that can help you distinguish yourselves from other researchers and create a comprehensive record of your work throughout your career. These unique identifiers are widely used across publishers, research institutions, and funding organizations so they can be used to quickly and easily share your research outputs in many different contexts. ORCID also provides a platform for public profile web pages and a variety of auto-updating options are available.

Highlighting research:

• ORCID is an easy to use, single platform to maintain a profile, published works, and a variety of other information (e.g. professional service activities, grants, etc.). Identifiers are already widely used across many disciplines and other systems/platforms.
• ORCID is particularly useful for scholars across disciplines who are regularly applying for external funding (e.g. NHS grants) and/or usually publish in traditional formats (e.g. articles, books, conference proceedings, etc.).
• You can submit your ORCID when you publish new work or apply for grants to easily share a complete record of your research, datasets, past funding, collaborators, and institutional affiliations.
• Distinguish yourself from other researchers with the same or similar names, and/or continue tracking your work if you change your name.

Interoperability and integration:

• Your ORCID is not tied to your UW account, and you can affiliate it with multiple emails so you never encounter access issues.
• Easily import works from many different systems, including Scopus, Google Scholar, and MLA Bibliography. Auto-updating is also available via CrossRef, Data Cite, and Web of Science.
• Importing grants and awards is available via DimensionsWizard, which continuously updates funding data for a variety of organizations worldwide, including federal agencies in the US.
• Quickly link your research outputs in online profiles or other digital spaces.
• You can limit the visibility of your profile to trusted organizations and/or individuals if you do not wish for it to be public.

• Maintaining profiles may require more effort if your output is primarily in less traditional formats (e.g. performances, patents, software, etc.), as auto-updating features are less available.
• Biographical details (e.g. professional affiliations, educational information, personal websites, etc.) must be added and updated manually.
• ORCID does not track citation counts – you will have to use other tools (like Google Scholar or ImpactStory, which imports directly from public ORCID profiles).

Setting up your account:

1. Start at the ORCID website, then click Sign In/Register in the upper right corner.
2. If you already have an ORCID ID, enter your login information or click Forgot your password or ORCID ID, then skip to step X. If you do not have an ORCID ID, click Register now.
3. Follow the prompts to set up your account. You can establish your visibility/privacy settings, and claim any existing ORCID profiles:
4. Be sure to check your email to verify your account.

Populating your profile:

1. Click the pencil icon or + Add button for the field you wish to edit/update. You can also change the visibility settings of different sections.
2. The Funding and Works sections can be auto-populated. Under + Add, click Search & link, then select the system you'd like data imported from. Popular options include Crossref, MLA International Bibliography, and Scopus (Web of Science is temporarily unavailable). You can also add items via DOI, PubMed ID, a BibTeX file (e.g. exporting your data from Google Scholar), or manually. 

Auto-updating your profile

By including your ORCID ID information with each new publication or dataset you submit, Web of Science, DataCite, and/or CrossRef can be granted permissions to auto-update your profile. Click on the links above for instructions for each system.

The following guides provide additional information and guidance around creating and maintaining ORCID profiles: