Enhance your academic reputation and connections with an ORCID iD
The concept behind the ORCID identification number is one of those really simple ideas that you wish you’d thought of yourself. Have you registered with ORCID? You should.
Registering for an ORCID iD means that you’ll get a single, unique researcher number that ties you to all of your papers, outputs, collaborations, institutions, and colleagues, and makes you easier to find quickly in searches carried out by reviewers, editors, and other researchers. This is important: Being easy to locate and identify in today’s fast-moving, largely digital world is hugely important as people (funders, university assessment panels, journal editorial offices) will want to know immediately if you wrote this or that paper, or if you would be suitable to be invited to be a peer reviewer for a particular topic or subject area. Look out for these numbers: You’ll see ORCID’s little green icon next to the names of authors at the top of papers, in the ‘contributions’ section, and next to named peer reviewers in the ‘acknowledgements’ section of papers. Registration takes less than two minutes and is well worth your time.
ORCID identification numbers are becoming more and more ubiquitous across the publishing industry as tools; indeed, increasing numbers of academic journals and publishing companies are mandating their use when authors submit papers, while journal and researcher information sites are asking for access to your number when, for example, collating publication information or assessing grant applications. In many cases you’ll now find that you can’t physically submit an article to a journal unless you’ve registered for one of these unique numbers.
These numbers are useful because they ensure that you actually get credit for research you’ve done and published that otherwise might be missed by a search engine or assessment agency. If you’ve already registered yourself on an academic network such as Academia.edu or ResearchGate you’ll know the feeling: sites like these often send out automated emails asking you, the researcher, if you are responsible for x and y publications that have appeared and have been tentatively assigned to your profile based on subject area or family name. Using an ORCID iD removes this problem: no-one can confuse you, or your papers, with someone else or their work, which is good news, especially if you have a common family name.
ORCID identification numbers are thus also an important part of the move towards more open research and international scholarship.
If you are confused about what the use of an ORCID identification number might mean for you, or your research, then visit https://orcid.org. You will be able to register or manage your account if, for example, you currently have more than one iD (you’ll need to consolidate your numbers into one to ensure your research productivity is not being diluted). Our team can help: get in touch for more information.
