What is ORCID®?
ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor Identification) is an open, not-for-profit organisation aiming to supply a persistent and unique identifier - an ORCID iD - to any individual involved in research, scholarship, and innovation activities.
How to create your ORCID
Step 1: Register for an ORCID
- Follow this link to visit the NWU Manuscript system to create a new ORCID iD. This system can also be used to link an existing ORCID iD. If you are unsure whether you already have an ORCID iD, search the ORCID registry on their website for your name.
- Use your CAS username and password to register/log in. This is the same username and password you use to log into eFundi and computers on campus.
- Click here for a step-by-step guide through the registration and linking process.
Step 2: Add your info
- Complete your profile by adding a biography, additional email addresses (including ones used previously), name variants, affiliations and keywords to make your profile discoverable.
- Privacy settings can be changed for different aspects of the ORCID record, such as who can view the Biography, Education and Employment history.
- Existing outputs can be added to your ORCID record using search and link tools which provide integrations between ORCID and various external platforms.
- Outputs that are not automatically linked can be added manually or imported using BibTex files.
- Click here for instructions on how to add publications from Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar to your ORCID profile.
- Funding information can be manually added to the ORCID record or through the provided search and link tool.
- Log in periodically to update changes to the ORCID record.
Step 3: Use your ORCID iD
- Include your ORCID iD wherever possible. Include it during submitting outputs, grant applications, or other research, scholarship and innovation activities. You can also include it in your CV, personal websites you might have, social media platforms, and even as part of your email signature.
- Existing identifiers from other providers can be linked to the ORCID record, such as Elsevier Author Profile and Web of Science ResearcherID. Contact our Research and Open Scholarship Librarians with any questions or comments.
NWU and ORCID
Recognising the importance of research visibility and discoverability, author disambiguation, and increased funder and publisher requirements for ORCID iDs, the NWU became an ORCID member institution making it possible to integrate existing NWU systems with the ORCID registry.
Central to the NWU-ORCID integration is the NWU Manuscript system, which was created to facilitate creating (new) or linking (existing) ORCID iDs while at the same time granting the NWU permission to push updates to the individuals' ORCID record.
The NWU Institutional Repository (NWU-IR) was used as the first integrationNWU Institutional Repository (NWU-IR) was used. Research outputs uploaded to the NWU-IR are automatically pushed to the ORCID record of the author(s) of the output.
Why register for an ORCID iD?
Publisher requirements
- Many publishers already require an ORCID iD for submission in their journals, and more than 3000 journals already collect ORCID iD from their authors. See a list of the publishers here.
Funder requirements
- Many funders, including the NRF, require an ORCID iD when submitting funded research outputs. The NRF repository will use this unique identifier to link to publications and datasets in the future.
Disambiguation
- The ORCID iD can uniquely identify an individual, irrespective of their chosen publication name (or spelling variations). This also ensures that research credit is not given to someone by mistake.
Grouping research together
- All the research outputs of an individual can be grouped on the ORCID record, which helps report all works to funders or publishers. Existing results can be imported from other platforms to the ORCID record.
Increased discoverability
- When a researcher attaches an ORCID iD to all outputs which stem from research (such as the final article, datasets, experiments or patents), all these outputs are linked together and to the individual researcher leading to better exposure and discoverability of the researcher 's other activities.
Streamlined data entry
- The idea is to 'input once, reuse often. Once relevant systems are integrated with ORCID, automatic exchange of information can take place to populate other systems (for example, from funding applications to repository systems to citation/statistics platforms)
Single sign-on to participating journals
- As more publishers and content providers include ORCID in their workflows, the ORCID iD can authenticate those providers, removing the need to register on multiple platforms.