By Ethan Walker, 0000-0002-2607-6500
Are you an avid researcher hoping to showcase your work? Are you involved with a community project? Are you looking for a way to ensure that you get credit for your research? ORCID can help!
What is ORCID?
ORCID is a service that is growing in popularity within the research community. ORCID stands for Open Researcher and Contributor ID and is an alphanumeric identifier that uniquely connects authors and contributors to their research, scholarship, and innovation.
ORCID itself is a not-for-profit organization that aims to eliminate the name ambiguity faced by many researchers and contributors. By supplying everyone with a unique ID, ORCID allows you to get credit for your work without having to worry about the other researcher also named Jane or John Doe.
ORCID creates a comprehensive profile for you and your research efforts. It collects biographical details, your educational background, employment background, funding information, and a database of your works.
How ORCID can help you?
Signing up for ORCID is as easy as entering your name, email, and password; but why should you start this process? ORCID has many benefits to you as a researcher, as well as to the way your research is shared on a global scale.
First and foremost, the ORCID identifier will last the lifetime of your research career and beyond. These unique identifiers are used to maintain a transparent and trustworthy connection between you the researcher, your contributions, and academic projects you may participate in. It is used in conjunction with your name to enforce your tie to your work.
Additionally, the ORCID infrastructure brings the researchers together by helping to maintain connections. Have you ever had to switch institutions or community organizations? Chances are you may have lost your work email, making staying in touch with your colleagues that much harder. ORCID, if you allow it, can share your most up to date email with your network making staying in touch a breeze.
Furthermore, ORCID is becoming integrated into the world of research through journals, grant applications, and institutions. Already, over 3,000 journals have begun to require the use of the ORCID identifier, and some American funders have already integrated ORCID into their grant applications. And this is a good thing for busy researchers. The information ORCID holds will help save you time. Rather than filling out countless forms, simply attach your ORCID identifier when registering for journal submissions, funding applications, and institutional identification and ORCID will share your past research efforts with one swift move.
And ORCID is not just for academics…
ORCID provides a platform to store your research, scholarship, and innovation; however, this is not limited to university-affiliated academics. ORCID helps all individuals archive and track their projects. Community members across all fields, especially those working in community-campus engagement (CCE), could benefit just as much from having a platform to document their efforts. ORCID’s approach creates an environment that encourages information and research findings to be shared not only across borders, but also across fields. From a CCE perspective, ORCID is especially beneficial as it helps to further connect community partners with academics.
Why should you embrace ORCID?
Overall, ORCID is an innovative concept that aims to provide a platform to connect research internationally. Research by definition involves the “the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions”. ORCID increases the pool of investigable materials by allowing research to reliably be shared across disciplines, borders, and time. With over 4,000,000 registrants to date, ORCID is growing into a necessary tool for any researcher hoping to further their research initiatives and share their findings.
If you are interested in creating an ORCID identifier, check out their website: https://orcid.org