ORCID Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids
ORCID
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Full name	Open Researcher and Contributor ID
Organization	ORCID, Inc.
Introduced	16 October 2012 (12 years ago) (2012-10-16)
No. issued	14,727,479
No. of digits	16
Check digit	MOD 11-2
Example	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1825-0097

The ORCID (pronounced "OR-kid") stands for Open Researcher and Contributor ID. It is a special code made of letters and numbers. This code helps to clearly identify people who write or contribute to research papers and books.

Imagine many people have the same name, like "John Smith." It can be hard to tell which "John Smith" wrote which paper. Names can also change, like when someone gets married. Different cultures also have different ways of writing names. ORCID solves these problems by giving each researcher a unique, permanent ID. It's like a special digital fingerprint for their work.

The ORCID system has a website. On this website, you can look up researchers. You can also find their published works and other information they choose to share.

Why ORCID is Useful
How ORCID Started
How Many People Use ORCID?
What an ORCID ID Looks Like
Who Uses ORCID?
- ORCID in Different Countries
How ORCID Connects with Other Systems
See also

Why ORCID is Useful

ORCID helps make sure that researchers get credit for their work. It solves the problem of confusing names. For example, many people might have the same name. This can make it hard to know who wrote what, especially in the same field of study.

Names can also change, like after a marriage. Different cultures arrange names in different ways. Journals might also use different ways to shorten first names or add middle initials. ORCID makes sure that a person's work is always linked to their unique ID, no matter what.

The ORCID organization lets registered users create a "digital resume." This resume shows all their contributions to science and other fields. It goes beyond just a list of publications.

How ORCID Started

ORCID was first talked about in 2009. It was a group effort by publishers of research papers. They wanted to fix the problem of confusing author names. The group was temporarily called the "Open Researcher Contributor Identification Initiative." This is where the name ORCID came from.

A first version of the system was built using software from Thomson Reuters. ORCID, Inc. became an independent, non-profit organization in August 2010. It was set up in Delaware, USA. It has a board of directors from different countries.

ORCID launched its services on October 16, 2012. On that day, it started giving out unique IDs to users.

How Many People Use ORCID?

ORCID has grown a lot since it started.

On November 15, 2014, ORCID announced its one-millionth registration.
By November 20, 2020, ORCID had reached ten million registrations.
As of August 2, 2022, ORCID reported that 14,727,479 people had active accounts.

Many publishers have agreed to support ORCID. They encourage or even require researchers to use ORCID IDs. For example, Springer Nature, a big publisher, announced in 2021 that they would support linking peer review activities directly to ORCID. This helps reviewers get credit for their important work.

What an ORCID ID Looks Like

An ORCID ID is usually shown as a web address. For example, a test ORCID ID for a made-up professor is `https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1825-0097`. You can click on this link to see the person's ORCID profile.

Sometimes, publishers use a shorter version, like "ORCID: 0000-0002-1825-0097."

ORCID IDs are part of a bigger system called the International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI). ISNI helps identify people who contribute to books, TV shows, and newspapers. ORCID and ISNI work together. A person can have both an ISNI and an ORCID ID.

Both ORCID and ISNI use 16-character IDs. These IDs are made of numbers from 0 to 9. They are separated into groups of four by hyphens. The last character can sometimes be an "X." This "X" stands for the number 10. For example, Stephen Hawking's ORCID is `https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9079-593X`.

Who Uses ORCID?

By the end of 2013, ORCID had 111 member organizations. Over 460,000 people had registered for an ID. By August 2, 2022, ORCID had 1,258 member organizations. It also had 14,727,479 active accounts.

These members include many research universities, like Caltech and Cornell University. They also include big publishers such as Elsevier and Wiley. Other members are commercial companies, academic groups, and organizations that give money for research.

For example, the Wellcome Trust, a charity that funds research, requires people applying for money to have an ORCID ID.

ORCID in Different Countries

Many countries have groups working to use ORCID more widely. These groups often include government bodies.

In Italy, 70 universities and four research centers are working together.
In Australia, the government's main health and medical research councils encourage all researchers to have an ORCID ID when applying for funding.
The French scientific article website HAL also asks its users to add their ORCID ID.

How ORCID Connects with Other Systems

Nick Jennings's ORCID in his Wikidata entry

Websites like Wikipedia and Wikidata include pages with ORCID identifiers. This helps link researchers to their information across different platforms.

Many journals, publishers, and other services have added ORCID into their systems. This means that when new research is published, if an ORCID ID is found, the researcher's ORCID record can be updated automatically.

Some ORCID data can also be accessed in different computer formats. ORCID uses GitHub to store its computer code.