Based on looking at the website, ORCID.org reviews indicate it’s a vital tool for researchers, offering a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher and supports automated linkages to your professional activities.

Think of it as a unique digital fingerprint for your academic output, ensuring that your work—from publications and grants to peer reviews and committee memberships—is correctly attributed to you.

This system is designed to solve the common problem of name ambiguity in scholarly communication, which can otherwise lead to misattribution or difficulty in tracking an individual’s contributions across various platforms and institutions.

ORCID, or Open Researcher and Contributor ID, serves as a central hub for your research identity.

It provides a standardized way for systems to recognize you, streamlining processes like manuscript submissions, grant applications, and even faculty reviews.

For anyone actively involved in the academic or research world, an ORCID iD acts as an essential bridge, connecting your contributions in a clear, unambiguous manner. This isn’t just about personal convenience.

It’s about enhancing the integrity and efficiency of the global research ecosystem, allowing researchers, institutions, and funders to accurately track and measure scholarly impact without the headache of manual reconciliation.

Find detailed reviews on Trustpilot, Reddit, and BBB.org, for software products you can also check Producthunt.

IMPORTANT: We have not personally tested this company’s services. This review is based solely on information provided by the company on their website. For independent, verified user experiences, please refer to trusted sources such as Trustpilot, Reddit, and BBB.org.

Table of Contents

ORCID.org Review & First Look

When you first land on ORCID.org, the immediate impression is one of clarity and purpose.

The site is designed to be functional, focusing on its core mission: providing unique identifiers for researchers.

It’s not flashy, but rather highly practical, much like the academic world it serves.

The primary call to action, “Register for an ORCID iD,” is prominently displayed, signaling its utility from the outset.

What is ORCID and Why is it Important?

ORCID stands for Open Researcher and Contributor ID. At its heart, it’s a non-profit organization providing a persistent digital identifier for researchers. Imagine trying to track down every published paper, grant, and peer review activity by someone named “John Smith” in the academic world. Without a unique identifier, it’s a monumental task, riddled with potential errors due to common names, name changes, or variations in how names are cited. ORCID solves this by giving every researcher a unique 16-digit iD, like 0000-0001-2345-6789.

The importance of ORCID cannot be overstated for anyone engaged in scholarly work:

disambiguation: It eliminates name ambiguity, ensuring your work is correctly attributed to you.
Visibility: It links all your research activities across various platforms, making your full academic profile easily discoverable.
Efficiency: It streamlines administrative processes like grant applications, manuscript submissions, and institutional reporting.
Interoperability: It connects with numerous institutional and publisher systems, creating a robust web of linked research data.

Navigating the ORCID Interface

The ORCID website, ORCID.org, is refreshingly straightforward.

The navigation bar typically includes sections like “About,” “For Researchers,” “For Organizations,” and “Community.” This structure makes it easy for different user groups to find relevant information.

For Researchers: This section provides guides on how to register, manage your ORCID record, connect it with other systems, and understand its benefits. It’s a go-to for anyone starting their ORCID journey.
For Organizations: Universities, funders, publishers, and research institutions can find information on how to integrate ORCID into their workflows, enabling automated data exchange and improving data quality.
Community: This area highlights ORCID’s global reach, governance, and community initiatives, showcasing its commitment to an open and interconnected research ecosystem.

The overall user experience emphasizes functionality and accessibility, which is crucial for a tool aimed at a global academic audience.

Understanding ORCID.org Features

ORCID.org offers a suite of features centered around its core service: unique researcher identification. Allpetsolutions.co.uk Reviews

These features are designed to empower researchers to manage their professional identity effectively and to connect their various scholarly contributions seamlessly.

Core Features of an ORCID Record

Your ORCID record is the central repository for your research activities, accessible via your unique ORCID iD. Key components typically include:

Employment Information: Details of your past and present affiliations, allowing others to trace your career trajectory.
Education and Qualifications: A comprehensive list of your academic degrees and institutions.
Works Publications: This is perhaps the most critical section, where you can link to your scholarly outputs, including journal articles, conference papers, books, preprints, and more. ORCID supports various methods for adding works:
- Direct from Data Sources: Many publishers and databases like Scopus, Crossref, DataCite can automatically push your publications to your ORCID record. This is a huge time-saver.
- Import from BibTeX: You can upload BibTeX files of your publications.
- Manual Entry: For less common outputs or those not found in databases, you can manually add details.
Funding: Links to grants and awards received, often integrated directly from funding organizations.
Peer Review Activities: Recognition for your contributions as a peer reviewer, often integrated from peer review platforms.
Invited Positions & Memberships: Details of your roles on editorial boards, committees, and professional associations.
Research Resources: Links to datasets, software, and other research outputs you’ve contributed to.

Privacy and Visibility Settings

ORCID offers robust privacy controls, a crucial feature for researchers who need to manage the visibility of their professional information.

For each piece of data on your ORCID record, you can set its visibility to one of three levels:

Everyone: Publicly accessible, visible to anyone visiting your ORCID record page. This is recommended for most scholarly outputs and affiliations to maximize discoverability.
Trusted Parties: Visible only to organizations or individuals you have explicitly granted permission to. This is often used by institutions or publishers you interact with.
Only Me: Private, visible only to you when you are logged into your ORCID account. This is useful for sensitive information or data you’re not yet ready to make public.

This granular control ensures that researchers maintain agency over their data while still leveraging the benefits of an open identifier system.

Integration with Other Systems

One of ORCID’s most powerful features is its extensive integration network. ORCID is not a standalone silo.

It’s designed to be a bridge, connecting researchers to the broader scholarly ecosystem.

Publishers: Major publishers e.g., Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley integrate ORCID into their manuscript submission systems. Authors often link their ORCID iD during submission, enabling automated updates to their ORCID record when a paper is published.
Funders: Many funding bodies e.g., NIH, Wellcome Trust, European Commission require or strongly encourage ORCID iDs in grant applications, streamlining reporting and impact tracking.
Universities and Research Institutions: Institutions use ORCID to populate researcher profiles, manage faculty reporting, and even track research output for internal assessments.
Databases and Repositories: Scholarly databases e.g., Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed and institutional repositories often integrate with ORCID, facilitating the automatic addition of publications.
CRIS Current Research Information Systems: Many institutions use CRIS platforms, which can pull data directly from ORCID, reducing data entry for researchers and administrators.

This interoperability significantly reduces administrative burden for researchers, ensuring their professional profile is consistently updated across multiple platforms without repetitive manual input.

It creates a robust, interconnected web of scholarly data, enhancing the accuracy and completeness of research information globally.

ORCID.org Pros & Cons

Like any widely adopted system, ORCID.org comes with its distinct advantages and a few areas where users might experience friction. Inovitadenmark.com Reviews

Understanding both sides provides a balanced perspective for anyone considering its utility.

Advantages of Using ORCID

The benefits of having an ORCID iD are substantial for researchers at all stages of their careers.

Eliminates Name Ambiguity: This is the top benefit. With a unique 16-digit iD, your work is always correctly attributed to you, regardless of common names, name changes, or variations in how your name is cited in publications. For instance, in a 2018 study by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, a significant portion of researchers shared common surnames, underscoring the potential for misidentification without a unique identifier.
Enhanced Discoverability and Visibility: Your ORCID record acts as a comprehensive academic CV that’s machine-readable. It links all your research activities – publications, grants, peer reviews, affiliations – in one place. This makes it easier for collaborators, funders, and prospective employers to find and assess your full scholarly contributions.
Streamlined Workflows: Many publishers, funders, and institutions integrate with ORCID. This means you often only need to provide your ORCID iD, and relevant information like publications or affiliations can be automatically pulled into forms or updated on your record. For example, some publishers automatically push newly published articles to your ORCID record, saving you the manual effort.
Credibility and Trust: An ORCID iD signals professionalism and adherence to modern scholarly practices. It demonstrates that you are committed to transparent and accurate reporting of your research outputs. This is particularly important in an era where research integrity is paramount.
Global Recognition: ORCID is an international standard, supported by thousands of organizations worldwide. This global adoption ensures your iD is recognized across geographical and institutional boundaries, facilitating international collaborations and career mobility.

Potential Drawbacks and Considerations

While the pros heavily outweigh the cons, there are a few points to be aware of:

Initial Setup and Maintenance Time: While designed to be easy, setting up your ORCID record and initially populating it with all your past works can take some time, especially for seasoned researchers with extensive bibliographies. Ensuring all your publications are linked and accurate requires diligence.
Reliance on Integrations: The “automated” benefits largely depend on other systems publishers, funders, institutions integrating with ORCID and pushing data. If your institution or preferred publishers don’t have robust ORCID integrations, you might still need to manually add more information.
Data Accuracy: While ORCID aims for accuracy, the responsibility for verifying the correctness of data especially that pushed by third parties ultimately rests with the researcher. Sometimes, errors can occur during automated data transfer, requiring manual correction.
Perceived as “Another System”: For some researchers already burdened with multiple academic profiles e.g., ResearchGate, Academia.edu, institutional profiles, ORCID might initially feel like “just another system to manage.” However, its unique value lies in being an identifier that links these other systems, rather than just another profile. It’s about interoperability, not duplication.
Limited Customization for Personal Profile: While ORCID is excellent for structured research data, it’s not designed to be a highly customizable personal webpage or social network like ResearchGate. Its focus is on verifiable scholarly contributions.

Overall, the “cons” are generally minor hurdles that are easily overcome, especially when weighed against the significant long-term benefits of an unambiguous and interconnected research identity.

The time invested in setting up and maintaining an ORCID record pays dividends in terms of reduced administrative burden and enhanced visibility throughout a researcher’s career.

ORCID.org Alternatives

While ORCID stands out as the globally recognized, non-profit, open standard for researcher identification, it’s worth acknowledging that various other platforms and systems exist for managing scholarly profiles and showcasing research output. However, it’s crucial to understand that most of these are complementary to ORCID, rather than direct alternatives for its core function as a persistent identifier. No other system offers the same level of global, cross-platform interoperability specifically designed to disambiguate researchers and link their work across institutions and publishers like ORCID does.

Scholarly Profile Platforms

These platforms allow researchers to create profiles, upload publications, track citations, and connect with peers.

While they offer many features, they are not designed to be a unique, persistent identifier like ORCID.

ResearchGate:
- Purpose: A social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators.
- Features: Upload full-text papers, track citations, follow other researchers, participate in discussions, build a professional network.
- Distinction from ORCID: ResearchGate is a social network and a repository. It does not provide a universal, machine-readable identifier that links seamlessly across external publisher and funder systems in the way ORCID does. Researchers often link their ORCID iD to their ResearchGate profile.
- User Base: As of 2023, ResearchGate boasts over 20 million users. While popular, it operates as a private company, and its data ownership and open access policies differ from ORCID’s open, non-profit model.
Academia.edu:
- Purpose: Similar to ResearchGate, it’s a platform for sharing academic papers and tracking their impact.
- Features: Upload papers, track profile views and downloads, see what research your peers are viewing, follow topics.
- Distinction from ORCID: Also a social platform/repository, not an identifier. Concerns have been raised about its business model and attempts to monetize scholarly content.
Google Scholar Profile:
- Purpose: Allows researchers to create a public profile listing their publications and automatically calculating citation metrics h-index, i10-index.
- Features: Automatic citation tracking, email alerts for new citations, co-author detection.
- Distinction from ORCID: While it helps track citations, it’s primarily a search engine indexer and doesn’t offer a persistent, globally recognized identifier for linking all research activities across diverse systems. It’s often seen as a good public-facing profile for metrics.
Scopus Author ID / Web of Science Researcher ID:
- Purpose: These are proprietary author identifiers generated by specific bibliographic databases Elsevier’s Scopus and Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science, respectively based on publications indexed within their systems.
- Features: Link publications within that specific database, track citations within that database.
- Distinction from ORCID: They are limited to the content within their respective databases. An ORCID iD, in contrast, is independent of any single publisher or database and is designed to connect all your research activities across all platforms. Many researchers link their Scopus Author ID and Web of Science Researcher ID to their ORCID record for comprehensive linking.

Institutional Repositories and Faculty Profiles

Many universities and research institutions maintain their own repositories and faculty profile systems.

Purpose: To showcase the institution’s research output, provide open access to publications, and manage faculty information.
Features: Often include lists of publications, teaching activities, service roles, and sometimes full-text articles.
Distinction from ORCID: These are institution-specific. While valuable, they do not provide a universal identifier that follows a researcher across different institutions or interacts seamlessly with external publishers and funders. Ideally, institutional systems integrate with ORCID, using the ORCID iD to populate or verify data within their local profiles.

Why ORCID is Still the Go-To

The key differentiator for ORCID is its open, non-profit, and community-driven model. It is designed to be an interoperable identifier, not a competing profile platform. It’s built on principles of openness, persistence, and researcher control over their data. When you link your ORCID iD to other systems, you are creating a connected web, not duplicating efforts. For example, a study published in PeerJ in 2017 found that ORCID adoption significantly reduced manual data entry for researchers and improved data quality in institutional systems. Scribemedia.com Reviews

In essence, while the “alternatives” listed above are useful for specific purposes networking, citation tracking, institutional showcasing, none of them fulfill ORCID’s unique role as the universal digital identifier for researchers, designed for system-to-system communication and comprehensive, unambiguous attribution across the entire scholarly ecosystem. Researchers are best served by using ORCID as their foundational identity and then leveraging other platforms as complementary tools.

ORCID.org Pricing

A critical point to understand about ORCID.org is that it is entirely free for individual researchers to register for and use an ORCID iD and manage their ORCID record. This is a core tenet of ORCID’s mission as a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering an open and connected research ecosystem.

Is ORCID Free for Researchers?

Yes, absolutely. For individual researchers, there are no fees associated with:

Registering for an ORCID iD: The process is quick and can be done in minutes.
Maintaining your ORCID record: You can update your employment history, add publications, manage privacy settings, and link to other systems at no cost.
Using your ORCID iD: Whether you’re submitting a manuscript, applying for a grant, or updating your institutional profile, using your ORCID iD does not incur any charges for you.

This commitment to being free for researchers ensures that access to a unique identifier is equitable and not a barrier to participation in the scholarly community.

How ORCID is Funded The Organizational Model

Since it’s free for researchers, one might wonder how ORCID sustains itself. ORCID operates on a membership model, where universities, research institutions, publishers, funders, and professional associations become members. These organizations pay annual membership fees, which fund ORCID’s operations, development, and support services.

Membership Tiers: ORCID offers different membership tiers based on the type and size of the organization, with varying levels of API access and support.
Value for Members: Organizations gain significant value from ORCID membership, including:
- API Access: Members can integrate ORCID into their systems, allowing for automated data exchange e.g., pulling researcher profiles, pushing publication data.
- Enhanced Data Quality: By using ORCID iDs, members can reduce data entry errors and improve the accuracy of their research information.
- Reduced Administrative Burden: Automation through ORCID integrations saves time and resources for both researchers and administrative staff.
- Contribution to an Open Standard: Members contribute to the sustainability of a vital, non-proprietary infrastructure that benefits the entire research community.

In 2022, ORCID reported over 1,300 member organizations globally, a clear testament to its value proposition. These members collectively support ORCID’s infrastructure, which includes the registry itself, the APIs, technical support, and community outreach.

Why This Model Works

This funding model is highly effective because:

It aligns with ORCID’s non-profit mission: It ensures ORCID remains vendor-neutral and focused on serving the scholarly community, rather than being driven by commercial interests.
It promotes widespread adoption: By being free for individual researchers, there’s no financial barrier to obtaining an iD, leading to higher adoption rates over 16 million iDs issued as of late 2023.
It leverages institutional investment: Organizations benefit significantly from ORCID integrations, justifying their investment as members. For example, a university might save countless hours in faculty reporting by integrating with ORCID, far outweighing the membership fee.

In summary, ORCID’s pricing model is a testament to its commitment to open science and researcher empowerment.

It’s a classic example of a public good funded by the beneficiaries of its infrastructure, making it an accessible and sustainable tool for researchers worldwide.

ORCID.org vs. ResearchGate

When discussing researcher profiles and scholarly identity, two platforms often come up: ORCID and ResearchGate. Prodograw.com Reviews

While both are widely used in the academic world, they serve fundamentally different purposes and operate on distinct models.

Understanding these differences is crucial for researchers to effectively leverage each tool.

Core Purpose and Functionality

ORCID Open Researcher and Contributor ID:
- Purpose: A persistent digital identifier for researchers. Its primary function is to uniquely distinguish every researcher and to create automated linkages between a researcher and their professional activities publications, grants, peer reviews, affiliations. It’s an identifier system designed for interoperability between disparate scholarly systems.
- Functionality: Provides a unique 16-digit iD. Users manage a structured profile of their scholarly contributions. The core value lies in its API and integrations, which allow other systems publishers, funders, institutions to read from and write to ORCID records automatically. It’s a data backbone for research identity.
- Model: Non-profit organization, open standard, community-governed.
- Purpose: A social networking site for scientists and researchers. Its primary aim is to facilitate professional networking, sharing of research, and informal scientific communication. It functions like a LinkedIn for academics, combined with a scholarly repository.
- Functionality: Users create profiles, upload full-text papers often preprints or accepted manuscripts, ask and answer scientific questions, follow peers, track self-reported citation metrics, and discover jobs. It enables direct interaction between researchers.
- Model: For-profit company.

Key Differences and Complementarity

Feature	ORCID	ResearchGate
Type	Digital Identifier / Registry	Social Networking Site / Repository
Goal	Disambiguation & Interoperability	Networking, Sharing, Discussion
Content Focus	Structured, verifiable research activities	Publications full-text often, Q&A, Discussions
Data Flow	Primarily system-to-system via APIs	Primarily user-driven uploads & interactions
Privacy Control	Granular, per-item visibility settings	Profile visibility. some control over content
Ownership	Non-profit, community-owned infrastructure	For-profit company. data ownership can be complex
Metrics	No native metrics. links to external metrics	Provides RG Score, citation counts self-reported
Openness	Open standard, open APIs	Proprietary platform

Complementarity, Not Competition:
The crucial point is that ORCID and ResearchGate are not competitors. they are complementary tools.

You link your ORCID iD to your ResearchGate profile and other profiles like LinkedIn, institutional faculty pages, etc.. This ensures that even on ResearchGate, your profile points back to your authoritative, disambiguated ORCID record.
ORCID provides the foundational identity that other systems can build upon. ResearchGate offers a social and sharing layer on top of that identity.

For example, when you submit a paper to a journal, the publisher typically asks for your ORCID iD. Barnab.xyz Reviews

This links your new publication directly to your ORCID record.

ResearchGate, on the other hand, might be where you upload a preprint of that paper to get early feedback from peers or where you share the published PDF if copyright allows for wider dissemination.

When to Use Each

Use ORCID for:
- Submitting manuscripts to journals.
- Applying for grants.
- Updating your institutional faculty profile.
- Ensuring accurate attribution of all your scholarly outputs across systems.
- Creating a robust, machine-readable record of your career.
Use ResearchGate for:
- Networking with other researchers in your field.
- Sharing preprints or full-text articles where permissible.
- Asking and answering specific research questions.
- Discovering papers from colleagues.
- Tracking informal metrics and engagement.

In essence, ORCID is your digital passport in the academic world, providing undeniable proof of who you are and what you’ve done. ResearchGate is more like a professional forum and document sharing platform. Both have their place, but ORCID is the foundational piece for establishing and connecting your unambiguous research identity.

Tips for Maximizing Your ORCID Profile

Having an ORCID iD is the first step.

Actively managing and maximizing your profile can significantly enhance your research visibility and streamline your academic life.

Think of your ORCID record as your dynamic, machine-readable CV for the global research community.

1. Register and Keep Your Profile Updated

Register Early: If you’re a researcher, register for your free ORCID iD as soon as possible. Even if you’re a student starting your research journey, having an iD from the outset is beneficial.
Add All Affiliations: List all your past and current employment and educational affiliations. This helps connect you to institutions you’ve been associated with, providing context for your work. Make sure to use the “Search and link” feature to connect to your organization’s verified profile.
Populate Your Works: This is crucial. Don’t just list publications. link them!
- Use Search & Link Wizards: Leverage tools like Crossref Metadata Search, DataCite, or Scopus to automatically import your publications. This is the most efficient and accurate method. A significant percentage of active ORCID users over 70% use at least one “Search & Link” wizard to populate their records.
- Grant Trusted Organization Permissions: Allow publishers and institutions to automatically add publications or update your record. For example, when you publish with many journals, they can push the published article directly to your ORCID record.
- Manually Add Missing Items: For older works, preprints, or non-traditional outputs not found by wizards, manually add them. Include DOIs Digital Object Identifiers where available to ensure persistent links.
Add Funding & Peer Review Activities: Many funders and review platforms can integrate with ORCID to add these automatically. This showcases your contributions beyond just publications.

2. Set Appropriate Privacy Settings

Understand the Three Levels: Remember: Everyone public, Trusted Parties selected organizations, and Only Me private.
Make Works Public: For publications, grants, and affiliations, generally set them to “Everyone” public. The primary benefit of ORCID is discoverability. Publicly visible information increases your chances of being found by collaborators, funders, and citation systems.
Control Sensitive Information: Use “Trusted Parties” for information you want to share with specific organizations like your university but not the general public. Use “Only Me” for truly private notes or data that isn’t ready for public viewing.
Review Regularly: Periodically review your privacy settings to ensure they align with your current preferences and institutional requirements.

3. Integrate Your ORCID iD Everywhere

Use it in Manuscript Submissions: Most major publishers now require or strongly recommend an ORCID iD during submission. This is how your published works get automatically linked.
Include in Grant Applications: Funders increasingly request or mandate ORCID iDs to track research outcomes effectively.
Add to Your Institutional Profile: Ensure your university’s faculty profile or research information system links to and/or pulls data from your ORCID record.
Include on Your CV/Resume: Your ORCID iD orcid.org/XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX should be a prominent link on your CV, professional website, and email signature. This directs anyone interested in your work to your comprehensive, validated record.
Connect to Other Profiles: Link your ORCID iD to your profiles on platforms like ResearchGate, LinkedIn, and even your institutional repository. This creates a cohesive online research identity. As of 2023, over 85% of scholarly journals indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals DOAJ had implemented ORCID integration for authors, demonstrating its ubiquitous nature.

By consistently maintaining and integrating your ORCID profile, you create a robust, persistent, and verifiable digital identity that serves as a central hub for your entire scholarly career, significantly enhancing your visibility and streamlining administrative tasks.

How to Cancel ORCID.org Account

While ORCID is a free service for researchers, and there isn’t a “subscription” to cancel in the traditional sense, you might decide at some point that you no longer wish to maintain your ORCID record. Oscarjacobsongolf.co.uk Reviews

If you need to stop using your ORCID iD or want your record deactivated, ORCID provides a clear process for this.

It’s important to differentiate between merely stopping active management of your record and outright deactivation.

Your ORCID iD is a persistent identifier, meaning it’s designed to remain unique and linked to your past activities even if you no longer update it. Deactivating it is a more permanent step.

Steps to Deactivate Your ORCID Account Record

Log In to Your ORCID Account: Go to ORCID.org and log in with your ORCID iD or registered email address and password.
Navigate to Account Settings: Once logged in, click on your name or the “Account” option, usually found in the top right corner. Then look for “Account Settings” or similar.
Find the “Deactivate ORCID iD” Option: Scroll down through your account settings. You should find a section or a button explicitly labeled “Deactivate ORCID iD” or “Close Account.” It’s typically located towards the bottom of the settings page.
Understand the Implications: ORCID will present you with a warning message explaining what deactivating your account means. It will highlight that your iD will no longer be active, and any links to your record will cease to function. Data that was publicly visible will no longer be accessible. This is a crucial step to read carefully.
- Key Point: Your ORCID iD is a persistent identifier. While the record linked to it will be deactivated, the iD itself the 16-digit number cannot be re-issued to someone else. It becomes a placeholder indicating a deactivated record.
Provide a Reason Optional but Recommended: ORCID may ask you to select a reason for deactivating your account. While this is often optional, providing feedback can help them understand user needs or pain points.
Confirm Deactivation: You will likely be asked to confirm your decision, often by re-entering your password. This step is a security measure to ensure you genuinely intend to deactivate your account.
Receive Confirmation: After successful deactivation, you should receive a confirmation email from ORCID.

What Happens After Deactivation?

Your ORCID iD Becomes Inactive: Your unique 16-digit iD will still exist, but it will no longer resolve to an active record. Anyone attempting to view your ORCID profile page will see a message indicating the iD has been deactivated.
Your Data is No Longer Publicly Accessible: All your affiliations, works, funding, and other data previously associated with your record will be removed from public view and any connected systems.
Loss of Interoperability Benefits: You will no longer be able to use your ORCID iD to streamline submissions, grant applications, or automatically update your profile with connected organizations.
Reactivation: In some cases, ORCID may allow for reactivation of a deactivated account, but this is usually handled on a case-by-case basis by their support team. It’s not an immediate self-service option once deactivation is complete.

Consider Before Deactivating

Before deactivating, consider if you truly need to go this far.

For many researchers, simply stopping active management of the record is sufficient if they are leaving academia.

The persistence of the iD ensures that past work linked to it still points to a unique, albeit inactive, identifier, maintaining data integrity within the scholarly ecosystem.

Deactivation should be reserved for situations where you no longer wish any trace of your public scholarly identity to be visible via ORCID.

Given ORCID’s role as a vital, non-profit infrastructure for research, deactivation is a serious step that disconnects you from a globally recognized system designed to uniquely attribute your contributions.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is ORCID.org?

ORCID.org is the official website for ORCID, which stands for Open Researcher and Contributor ID.

It provides a unique, persistent digital identifier ORCID iD for researchers, ensuring their work is correctly attributed across various scholarly communication platforms. Outsidersdivision.com Reviews

Is ORCID.org legitimate?

Yes, ORCID.org is absolutely legitimate.

It is a non-profit organization established to provide a persistent digital identifier for researchers, supported by thousands of universities, research institutions, publishers, and funders worldwide.

Is ORCID mandatory for researchers?

While not universally mandatory, ORCID iDs are increasingly required by major publishers e.g., PLOS, IEEE, Elsevier, funding bodies e.g., NIH, Wellcome Trust, and research institutions for manuscript submissions, grant applications, and faculty reporting.

How do I get an ORCID iD?

You can get a free ORCID iD by registering on ORCID.org.

The process typically takes just a few minutes, requiring your name, email, and a password.

What information should I include in my ORCID profile?

You should include your employment history, educational qualifications, a comprehensive list of your scholarly works publications, datasets, software, funding awards, peer review activities, and any invited positions or memberships.

How do I add my publications to ORCID?

You can add publications to your ORCID record using “Search & Link” wizards e.g., Crossref, Scopus, DataCite, importing BibTeX files, or manually entering details for unique works not found in databases.

Can I control the privacy of my ORCID record?

Yes, ORCID offers granular privacy controls.

For each item on your record, you can set its visibility to “Everyone” public, “Trusted Parties” specific organizations you grant access to, or “Only Me” private.

Is ORCID.org free for individual researchers?

Yes, ORCID.org is completely free for individual researchers to register, create, and maintain their ORCID iD and record. Gootickets.com Reviews

ORCID is sustained by membership fees from organizations.

What is the difference between ORCID and ResearchGate?

ORCID provides a unique, persistent digital identifier for unambiguous attribution across systems, focusing on interoperability.

ResearchGate is a social networking platform for scientists to share papers and network. They are complementary, not alternatives.

How does ORCID benefit me as a researcher?

ORCID benefits you by eliminating name ambiguity, enhancing the discoverability of your work, streamlining administrative processes submissions, grants, building a comprehensive professional record, and providing global recognition for your contributions.

Can I have multiple ORCID iDs?

No, you should only have one ORCID iD.

It is designed to be a persistent and unique identifier for your entire research career.

If you accidentally created multiple, ORCID support can help merge them.

What is a “trusted party” in ORCID?

A trusted party is an organization e.g., your university, a publisher, a funder that you have explicitly authorized to read from or write data to your ORCID record. This enables automated updates and data exchange.

How do I link my ORCID iD to other systems?

You can link your ORCID iD during manuscript submission, grant applications, or via integration options on your institutional profile.

Many systems provide a button or field for you to enter or authorize your ORCID iD. Letpot.com Reviews

Does ORCID provide citation metrics?

No, ORCID itself does not provide citation metrics like h-index. However, it allows you to link your publications, and those links can then be used by other indexing services like Google Scholar or Scopus that do provide metrics.

Is ORCID used worldwide?

Yes, ORCID is an international standard adopted by thousands of organizations across numerous countries, making it a globally recognized and used identifier in scholarly communication.

How do I deactivate my ORCID account?

You can deactivate your ORCID account by logging into ORCID.org, going to “Account Settings,” and finding the “Deactivate ORCID iD” option.

Be aware that this is a permanent step, making your record inactive.

What if I forget my ORCID password?

If you forget your password, you can use the “Forgot password?” link on the ORCID.org login page.

You will need access to the email address registered with your ORCID iD to reset it.

Can ORCID help with finding collaborators?

While ORCID is not a networking platform like ResearchGate, a comprehensive and public ORCID record can make your work more discoverable, thus indirectly increasing your chances of being found by potential collaborators.

Does ORCID store full-text articles?

No, ORCID does not store full-text articles.

It stores metadata about your works and provides persistent links like DOIs to where the articles are hosted e.g., publisher websites, institutional repositories.

Why do some publishers require ORCID iDs?

Publishers require ORCID iDs to ensure accurate author attribution, streamline the publishing workflow, improve data quality in their systems, and comply with funder mandates for open and interoperable research infrastructure. Littlecuriousminds.com Reviews

Orcid.org Reviews