Open Researcher and Contributor ID (or ORCIDs) are unique identifiers for researchers that can be used to identify research outputs across platforms to a particular researcher.

ORCIDs are a good idea because:

• They distinguish between researchers with the same or similar names.
• It saves time – entering your ORCID will auto-populate personal details when completing online forms on compatibile systems.
• ORCIDs are community driven and non-proprietary.
• ORCIDs allow different platforms to talk to each other.  Signing up for an ORCID will allow the push and pull of data from one system to another e.g. from ORO to arXiv.

Nearly 2 million researchers already have signed up for ORCIDs and they are free. You can register on the ORCiD site here.

ORCIDs are increasingly important:

• The Metric Tide Report recommends their use potentially for the next REF.
• Publishers (e.g. RSC, AGU, IEEE and PLOS)  are beginning to require authors to have an ORCiD at point of submission.
• Funders are beginning to require ORCIDs (e.g. The Wellcome Trust) in grant applications.

This year Library Services and Research and Academic Strategy will support OU researchers by linking their institutional identifier (OUCU) with their ORCID identifier. This will allow the transfer of data from ORO (in the first instance) to external systems via the ORCID registry. So updates to data in any system will update in linked systems – ORCIDs are the key links between systems. 

We will be out and about in 2016 promoting the use of ORCIDs at the OU and doing the work to exploit the full potential of ORCIDs for OU researchers.  Contact us for more details or if you would be interested in piloting the use of ORCIDs in your department.