Make the most of ORCID! Join your colleagues in a community of practice: learn how other research institutions are using ORCID and how to engage with your researchers, and use our workflow-based documentation to build ORCID into your institutional workflows.
To ensure that you build the best possible integration for your institution, your researchers, and the wider community, we have created these best practice guidelines. They will ensure a standardized user experience for an efficient collection of ORCID iDs and understandable request of user permissions. This allows you to focus on supporting and tracking research in your institution, and your researchers to more easily share information about their work.
- Authenticate. You collect authenticated ORCID iDs for your researchers (i.e., iDs obtained via the ORCID API) and permissions to read, write, and update their record. Do not ask researchers to type in or search for their iD.
- Collect. You collect authenticated ORCID iDs for your researchers (i.e., iDs obtained via the ORCID API) and long-lasting permissions to read, write, and update their record. Do not ask researchers to type in or search for their iD.
- Display. You embed your researchers’ ORCID iDs in your institutional information systems, and where appropriate display the ORCID iD icon next to the name of each researcher who has connected their iD.
- Connect. You update your researchers’ ORCID records with information about their affiliation with your institution. Your organization is displayed as the source of this information.
- Collect. You request and use permission from researchers to pull information from their ORCID record to auto-populate your system(s), standard online reports and forms.
- Synchronize. You exchange information to AND from ORCID records and your system(s) over time, so that the two are fully synchronized.
- Take your integration further. You use ORCID iDs in other institutional systems and workflows, such as institutional repositories, electronic theses and dissertations, and peer review.
Find out more about why and how to:
Authenticated iDs at your research institution
Why?
Use our API to collect ORCID iDs from your users in identity management, research information management (RIM)/profile and human resources (HR), electronic theses and dissertations (ETD), institutional repository (IR) systems, and more. This ensures that you have the right iD for each researcher and can correctly identify them across multiple systems and/or campuses at your institution. At the same time, you can request their permission to read, write, or update the information in their ORCID record – in particular, their affiliation with your institution.
How?
Collecting ORCID iDs and permission to read from/write to ORCID records involves (i) prompting your researchers to sign into ORCID – either from within one of your systems or via our Create on Demand process – and (ii) retrieving data from the ORCID Registry using the ORCID API. You should use the API to enable information flow, to ensure that applicants are associated with the iD they provide, and so that you can request permission to update their ORCID record with their affiliation (and other information as applicable). Applicants should not be asked to manually copy and paste an iD into a free text field or search for their name in the ORCID registry. Several ORCID member third-party systems already support our API workflows for institutions
Display ORCID iDs on your web pages and embed them in your metadata
Why?
Clearly show your researchers and the community how and why you are using iDs. Store ORCID iDs in your database(s) so you can connect researchers in your own systems. Publicly display iDs on your website, for example, in your profile system to signal to researchers your use of iDs. Include the authenticated iD within internal and external metadata. And enable search by iD in your public databases to improve search and discovery.
How?
ORCID welcomes and encourages community use of ORCID iDs. Our goal is to make ORCID iDs readable and useful. They should be easy to find and logically placed. Please ensure that each ORCID identifier is displayed with the appropriate applicant. Follow our display guidelines, including ensuring that the green ORCID iD icon is hyperlinked to the researcher’s ORCID iD.
Connect affiliation information about your researchers to their ORCID records
Why?
Connecting authoritative information about a researcher’s affiliation with your institution enables you to take control of how your name is used in the research literature, as well as allowing you to easily keep track of former staff, students, and faculty. It makes it easy for your researchers to share accurate and authoritative information about their affiliation with your institution when applying for grants, publishing an article, book, or database, and more.
How?
Ensure you request read/write/update permission when you collect a researcher’s ORCID iD – either on your own system or by using a third-party application that offers this functionality. You can then use the API to update your researchers’ ORCID records with validated information about their affiliation with your institution. You decide how your institution name is listed and which organization identifier to use; your organization will be listed as the information source. You can also add details such as employment dates (this will be a required field in future), job titles, and more, and you can update the information should it change (for example, when a researcher goes on sabbatical or leaves your institution). If wished, you can also update your researchers’ records with other data such as publications and awards.
Collect information from your researchers’ ORCID records
Why?
Most institutions ask their researchers for the same information multiple times for different purposes. To save them time entering this information manually, and to improve the quality and robustness of your data, you can instead populate standard fields in your reports and forms using information from a researcher’s ORCID record.
How?
p>Request permission to read/write/update their ORCID record when you collect a researcher’s ORCID iD. You can then use the ORCID API to access information such as employment and education affiliations; publications, datasets and other works; biographical, funding, and peer review information. You can pull this information into your own system(s), using it to auto-populate standard fields in profiles, forms and other web pages.
Synchronize the information flow between your system and ORCID
Why?
Using the ORCID API to exchange information between your system and ORCID records allows up-to-date and accurate information to flow between your systems and the other systems your researchers use. This provides the greatest benefit for your researchers, your institution, and the broader scholarly community. It enables your researchers to spend more time making contributions and less time managing information about them; it makes authoritative information about a researcher’s affiliation with you available to the other organizations they interact with; and it makes it possible to track your researchers’ contributions, awards, and affiliations throughout their whole career.
How?
Implement both the connect AND collect options to push and pull information to and from ORCID records. Keep your systems up-to-date by using our webhooks functionality to get alerts whenever a change is made to your researchers’ ORCID records.
Take your integration further
Why?
There are all sorts of other ways that research institutions – and researchers – can benefit from ORCID. For example, you can collect iDs from your graduate students and connect their electronic thesis or dissertation (ETD) to their ORCID record. This makes a trusted connection between your students, their works, and your institution, and enables better discoverability and recognition. You can also recognize your researchers’ review activities at your institution, for example, their work on thesis, promotion, or tenure committees. This enables them to easily share their review contributions with other organizations, such as funders, when needed. And you can embed ORCID iDs in your institutional repository (IR), making your researchers’ works more discoverable and enabling increased recognition both for them and for your institution.
How?
Visit members.orcid.org for more information about ORCID in ETDs, peer review, and institutional repositories, as well as other workflows and connection points.
NEW! Now available in our new API 3.0 — currently available in beta — an expanded set of affiliation options (Qualifications, Invited positions and distinctions, and Membership and service) and a new Research Resources section (for information about specialist resource use, such as access to a national laboratory, a museum or gallery, or a digital collection). Technical documentation can be found on our GitHub repository and will also be updated regularly during development.