ORCID Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids
ORCID
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Full name	Open Researcher and Contributor ID
Organisation	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's like a special digital ID for people who do research, write books, or contribute to scientific papers. Think of it as a unique number that helps everyone know exactly who wrote what.

This system helps solve a big problem: many people have the same name. For example, there might be several "John Smith" scientists. Names can also change, like when someone gets married. Different cultures also order names differently. All these things can make it hard to keep track of a person's work. ORCID gives each researcher a special, lasting ID number. This makes it easy to find all their contributions, no matter what their name is or how it's written.

Why ORCID is Useful
How ORCID Started
How Many People Use ORCID?
What ORCID IDs Look Like
Who Uses ORCID?
- ORCID in Different Countries
How ORCID Connects to Other Systems
See also

Why ORCID is Useful

ORCID helps make sure that a researcher's work is always linked to them. It's like a permanent address for their professional achievements. This is important because many researchers have common names. It can be hard to tell their work apart from others with the same name.

Names can also change over time. Different journals might use different ways to write names. ORCID gives a clear, unique way to identify each person. The ORCID organization also lets registered users create a "digital resume." This resume shows all their contributions to science, not just a list of publications. It's a great way to show off all their hard work!

How ORCID Started

ORCID was first announced in 2009. It was a team effort by different groups that publish research. Their goal was to fix the problem of confusing author names. The group was temporarily called the "Open Researcher Contributor Identification Initiative," which is where the name ORCID comes from.

A first version of the system was built using software from another company, Thomson Reuters. In August 2010, ORCID Inc. became an independent, non-profit organization. It has a board of directors from all over the world. On October 16, 2012, ORCID officially launched its services. That's when it started giving out unique IDs to researchers.

How Many People Use ORCID?

Many researchers and organizations have started using ORCID.

On November 15, 2014, ORCID announced that one million people had registered.
By November 20, 2020, ten million people had registered!
As of August 2, 2022, over 14.7 million people had active ORCID accounts.

To encourage more people to use ORCID, many publishers signed an open letter in 2016. They promised to require ORCID IDs for their publications. Some publishers, like Springer Nature, also started using ORCID to help researchers get credit for their peer review work. Peer review is when other experts check a research paper before it's published.

What ORCID IDs Look Like

ORCID IDs are usually shown as web addresses. For example, a made-up professor named Josiah S. Carberry has the ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1825-0097. You can use this link to find his profile.

ORCID IDs are similar to another type of ID called the International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI). ISNI identifies people who contribute to books, TV shows, and newspapers. ORCID and ISNI work together. A person can sometimes have both an ISNI and an ORCID ID.

Both ORCID and ISNI use 16 characters. These characters are numbers from 0 to 9. They are separated into groups of four by hyphens, like this: 0000-0002-1825-0097. The very 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. These are groups that support and use ORCID. Many research universities, like Caltech and Cornell University, are members. Big publishers, such as Elsevier and Springer, are also members.

Some organizations that give money for research, like the Wellcome Trust, now ask people to provide an ORCID ID when they apply for funding. This helps them keep track of who is doing the research they fund.

ORCID in Different Countries

Many countries have started using ORCID on a national level. For example, in Italy, many universities and research centers work together to use ORCID. In Australia, the government's research councils encourage all researchers applying for money to have an ORCID ID. This shows how important ORCID has become around the world.

How ORCID Connects to Other Systems

Nick Jennings's ORCID in his Wikidata entry

ORCID IDs are used in many different online systems. Even websites like Wikipedia and Wikidata include pages with ORCID identifiers. This means you can often find a researcher's ORCID ID directly from their Wikipedia or Wikidata page.

Many journals, publishers, and other services have added ORCID to their systems. This makes it easier to share information about researchers and their work. For example, if a new research paper is published and has an ORCID ID, that ID can be automatically updated in the ORCID system.

ORCID data can also be accessed in different computer formats. This helps other systems use and share the information easily. ORCID even uses GitHub to store its computer code, which is a common way for software projects to be managed.

ORCID facts for kids

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