Signing up for an ORCID identifier will ensure that your research outputs are not confused with those of other researchers with similar names. Registration is free and you only have to sign up once.
An ORCID iD is now essential if you want to submit work to many publishers or apply for funding from large organisations such as RCUK or The Wellcome Trust.
You can also link your ORCID iD to other services such as ResearchFish, Scopus, Figshare, ImpactStory, Kudos, SSRN and Publons.
Much more information about ORCID is available in the ORCID libguide.
An ORCID® identifier or ORCID iD is a 16-character identifier that can be used to clearly identify you – and not another researcher by a similar name - as the author/owner of an academic output or activity.
You may have already seen researchers displaying their ORCID identifier like this:
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2084-3967
Your ORCID iD belongs to you and not to the institution that you work for or a company. You get to decide what information you associate with it, who can see this information and which other organisations can add information on your behalf. This means you can keep adding to it thoughout your research career.
The idea behind ORCID identifiers is that they should be a stable link between all your research activities - grant applications, manuscript submissions, publications, entries in institutional repositories and your peer review activity.
If you need additional help creating or populating your ORCID profile, please contact Karen Rowlett, Research Publications Adviser.
Three step-by-step guides are available to download to help with creating and growing your ORCID iD and with connecting it to other services such as ResearchFish.
It is very easy to sign up for an ORCID iD
A quick explanation of how having an ORCID iD can help researchers