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ORCID iD

A guide to understanding what is an ORCID, why researchers should be interested and how to obtain one of these unique identifiers.

Welcome to the ORCID iD Guide for Researchers

Use this guide to introduce yourself to what is an ORCID iD, to discover the advantages to having an ORCID iD and how to to create an ORCID iD for yourself.

  • Watch the sort video below for a quick overview of what is ORCID iD. 
  • Use the side-navigation menu to discover the other sections of this guide.

What is an ORCID iD ?

ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a free persistent digital identifier (an ORCID iD) that you own and control, and that distinguishes you from every other researcher.

You can connect your iD with your professional information — affiliations, grants, publications, peer review, and more. You can use your iD to share your information with other systems, ensuring you get recognition for all your contributions, saving you time and hassle, and reducing the risk of errors.

In a Canadian context we can think of an ORCID iD as a Social Insurance Number (SIN) / Numéro d'assurance sociale (NAS), but for all your research activities.

Why an ORCID iD?

An ORCID iD:

  • distinguishes you and ensures your research outputs and activities are correctly attributed to you
  • reliably and easily connects you with your contributions and affiliations
  • reduces form-filling (enter data once, re-use it often)
  • improves recognition and discoverability for you and your research outputs
  • is interoperable (works with many institutions, funders, and publishers)
  • is persistent (enduring)
  • is also FREE / c'est aussi GRATUIT!

It is also often a requirement when you submit journal articles or grant applications. Currently there are approximately 5 million live ORCID iD's in existence, and this number is growing rapidly.

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Adapted from Ryerson University Library's ORCID Guide

ORCID iD Help

Obtain help with ORCID iD from: 

Your Liaison Librarian

The Librarian for Scholarly Communication

Librarian for Scholarly Communication

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Robin Desmeules
she/her/elle
Contact: Website

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