Imagine you publish a paper early in your career under one version of your name. Later, you move institutions, change how you publish your name, collaborate internationally, or work across disciplines where others share the same surname. Over time, your work is scattered across systems, publishers, funders and platforms and it becomes surprisingly hard to prove all of it is yours. ORCID solves this problem.
Amplify your research with ORCID
ORCID stands for Open Researcher and Contributor ID and is a global, not-for-profit organisation dedicated to creating a world where all who participate in research, scholarship, and innovation are uniquely identified and connected to their contributions across disciplines, borders, and time.
ORCID is a persistent and unique digital identifier which enables researchers and institutions to maintain a consolidated record of all of their research activities.
ORCID proactively empowers the global research community and advances transparent, trustworthy scholarship.
ORCID stays with you throughout your entire career, regardless of where you work, what you publish, or how your name appears. It connects you, not just your outputs, to your affiliations, funding, publications and contributions in a trusted, verifiable way.
Research Impact Facilitator, Catherine McElhone encourages people in the research community to use their ORCID as much as they can.
“ORCID proactively empowers the global research community and advances transparent, trustworthy scholarship,” she said.
Where can you use an ORCID?
Many publishers also require authors to have an ORCID. Some grant funders also use it, for instance the Australian Research Council (ARC) allow you to populate your publication list from ORCID into ROPE (Research Output Performance Evidence).
Publications can be added to your ORCID profile from many sources including Symplectic Elements, Scopus, Web of Science, CrossRef or added manually through ORCID.
UTS is fortunate to have Symplectic Elements, which has bidirectional integration with ORCID. This means when publishers add your outputs to ORCID they appear in Elements or when you manually add publications to Elements they flow through to ORCID.
At its core, ORCID is about trust and recognition: making sure researchers are unambiguously identified and properly credited for their work, everywhere it appears.
Who can get an ORCID?
Anyone can get an ORCID.
Whether you are a researcher, professional staff, or a research student, an ORCID provides anyone who contributes to the research process with an independent profile to track your contributions across the research ecosystem.
Why should you get an ORCID?
- It ensures you get credit for your work
ORCID distinguishes you from other researchers with similar names and links all your outputs together, even if they appear under different name formats or across multiple platforms. This helps publishers, funders and institutions correctly attribute your work to you, not someone else. - It reduces admin and duplication
Once connected, trusted systems (such as institutional research systems and funder platforms) can automatically exchange information with your ORCID record. This means fewer manual data entry tasks, fewer errors, and less time spent repeatedly entering the same information. - It travels with you across institutions and roles
Your ORCIDis owned and controlled by you. It is not tied to a single university, publisher or country. Whether you move institutions, take on industry or policy roles, or shift between teaching‑focused and research‑focused positions, your ORCID provides a continuous record of your professional contributions. - It strengthens credibility and trust
An ORCID record can act as a trust marker, especially when affiliations and outputs are added by trusted organisations. This is increasingly important for government, industry, media and collaborators who want confidence that information about a researcher is authoritative and verified. - It supports discoverability and impact
By linking your work across systems, ORCID makes it easier for others to find your research, see the breadth of your contributions, and understand your career narrative, not just your publication list. This directly supports visibility, discoverability and impact over time.
Executive Manager, Research Intelligence and Quality, Scott McWhirter added, “There isn’t a piece of global research infrastructure that is going to work harder for you as a researcher. The payback time in saved reporting alone is immense.”
Visit the ORCID at UTS SharePoint for more information on the benefits of ORCID.
How to use your ORCID
There are many ways you can use your ORCID to amplify your work in the research ecosystem and direct people to all your research contributions. This includes:
- Including it in presentation slides – whether you are presenting at a conference, workshop or seminar, including your ORCID in your slides allows attendees to link the research presented to you.
- Including it in grant applications – this strengthens your grant applications by allowing funding bodies to access all your contributions
- Providing it to your publishers – this allows publishers to connect your publications to the consolidated record of all your publications and research activities. Some publishers also require you to provide your ORCID.
What’s next?
- Visit the ORCID at UTS Getting Started with ORCID SharePoint page to learn how to set up your ORCID and integrate it with Symplectic Elements.
- Login to Symplectic Elements to integrate your profile with your ORCID.
- Read the ARDC’s Australian National Persistent Identifier (PID) Strategy and Roadmap