Every academic should have an ORCID record

ORCID: Open Research and Contributor ID

I have a rather unique name and finding my publications in Pubmed is usually not very difficult, even though it is not 100% fail proof. An O.R.C.ID is a unique identifier that some journals now require.In fact just last week I had to provide my ORCID to a journal as being co-author on a publication. ORCID is a simple numerical identifier, for example mine is 0000-0002-2640-4949 . All academics should have only one ORCID to be kept for a lifetime of academic publications.

Top reasons to register and have an ORCID record:

  • It is easy to register at https://orcid.org/register
  • The 16 digits number is unique.
  • Your name is correctly spelled, and not confused with other people with the some or similar name.
  • It’s free for all academics, provided by a not-for-profit organization that is independent of big Industry.
  • It is now required by many journal publishers.
  • Grant funders now also insist on having this unique identifier associated with the request.

For example, here are the explanations from the JMIR publications from the Editorial Director: What is an ORCID, why is it mandatory to have one, and how can I get one?

Here is a cool cartoon that details all the reasons why it is a good idea:

ORCID: connecting research and researchers.