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Researcher Profile Audit Service (RPAS): ORCiD

All About ORCID

What is ORCID?

ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a persistent digital identifier number that distinguishes you from other researchers. 

Why get an ORCID? 

Having a unique persistent identifier allows you to: 

  • Differentiate you from authors with identical or similar names
  • Maintain and manage your scholarly identity even if you change affiliations
  • Easily link your profile to articles, conference proceedings, experiments, datasets, and more
  • Identify works authored under variant forms of your own name (ex. A. Brown, AR Brown, Anna R. Brown)
  • Identify yourself to publishers, funding organizations, and research organizations.  
  • Use information for reporting in eRA Commons, and automatically populate forms including SciENcv and NIH Biosketch
  • Create a QR code for use on Conference Posters to direct people to your works. 

Additionally, several major scientific publishers and funding institutions are starting to require ORCID. You may be asked to sign up for an ORCID at some point during the publication process. ORCID iD has become the dominant standard for researcher identification. 

How to create an ORCID?

While you control visibility of all components of your ORCID profile, you can create or connect your ORCID to GW which makes GW a trusted organization for your ORCID profile.

What publishers require ORCID?

The list of publishers requiring ORCIDs continue to grow. See the Signatories list for the ORCID Open Letter

What information in my ORCID profile is visible to the pubic?

You can control what elements of your ORCID record are publicly visible. For your personal information and information about your works, three settings are available: 

  • Public or Everyone: This information is visible via the ORCID API and can be viewed by visitors to the ORCID website. 
  • Trusted parties: This information is visible only to individuals or organizations you authorize.
  • Private: This information is visible only to you.

For more information see the Visibility settings in the ORCID Knowledge Base and ORCID's privacy policy

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about ORCID

Video - ORCIDs: Maintaining Your Online Identity

Populating & Maintaining Your ORCID

How to populate your ORCID iD with publication and other research information:

In order to maximize the benefits of your ORCID account, you will need to populate your account either by linking your works from another system, importing a BibTeX file of your work, or adding works manually. 

  1. Linking your works from Scopus: To link works from another system such as Scopus go to the Add works menu and select the Search & link button

    Select Scopus then follow the prompts to connect your Scopus ID to your ORCID profile.  Once you set up the link between these two accounts, new publications will automatically transfer to your ORCID profile when they are added to Scopus. 

  2. Importing a BibTeX file from Google Scholar: Access Google Scholar then login, and select My Profile and select citations to export. In your ORCID profile, go to the Add works menu and select Import BibTeX. 

    Once you have an exported BibTeX file from your Google Scholar Profile, you can import this information directly into your ORCID profile

  3. Manually adding your works: You may also manually add entries for works that do not appear in other systems. Go to the Add works menu and select the Add manually button. Also see the Add works manually resource in the ORCID Knowledge Base. 

Using Your ORCID iD to Create a SciENcv Biosketch

Connect your ORCID iD to SciENcv, to populate Contributions to Science or Products areas in your NIH Biosketch or NSF Biographical Sketch. 

  1. Login to SciENcv
    • Several options are available to login to your my NCBI Account including via your GW Google account; enter your GW UserID in the format userid@email.gwu.edu (faculty and staff) or userid@gwmail.gwu.edu (students). 
    • Login issues:  if you encounter difficulties with logging into your NCBI account or need to merge accounts, contact the NCBI Support Center.
  2. On the Create a New Document page, locate the External Source area and then select ORCID then Link to an ORCID account.
  3. On the NCBI Account Settings page in the Linked Accounts area, select Add Account.
  4. Search for ORCID, then select it from the list.
  5. Follow the prompt to login to your ORCID account and select the citations to make available in SciENcv.  
  6. In your NIH Biosketch or NSF Biographical Sketch, you can now automatically add citations from your ORCID profile.