ORCID Brand Guidelines

General brand guidance

While most of the materials in the ORCID’s Brand Library are published under a CC0 license, ORCID’s name and trademarks, including the logos, (the “Marks”) are trademarks of Orcid, Inc. and shall be used in accordance with these guidelines. 

We invite you to make use of these Marks in your promotional ORCID materials for your institution, product, or service, but we ask that you do not use the Marks in any way that conflicts with these guidelines or is likely to cause confusion as to the origin of goods or services or to suggest endorsement by ORCID, unless specifically approved in advance by ORCID in writing. To make any use of our Marks in a way not covered by these guidelines, please contact us and include a visual mockup of intended use.

The ORCID name

The name of the ORCID organization is “ORCID.” We provide a Registry of “ORCID iDs.” ORCID is both a proper noun and an adjective. Use the name ORCID as an adjective, as in “ORCID Registry” or “ORCID identifier,” unless referring to the organization itself, as in “ORCID offers a Registry at https://orcid.org.”

The first or most prominent time the name “ORCID” appears whether in printed or digital form, we ask that you use the trademark symbol, TM or SM, in the upper right hand side of the logo: “ORCID^™”.

When talking or writing about ORCID:

DO

• Use “ORCID” as a noun to refer only to the organization. Use the phrase “ORCID identifier” or “ORCID iD” (lower case i, upper case D) to refer to the identifier itself (e.g., “ORCID offers unique identifiers, known as ORCID iDs”).
• Use the phrase “ORCID record” or “ORCID profile” to refer to the information in the ORCID Registry that relates to a specific ORCID iD holder.
• Ensure that any use of our name makes clear that it’s about ORCID and not by ORCID:
  • Yes: “Sharing your ORCID record”
  • No: “The ORCID guide to sharing your record”
• Have proper attribution language on your materials. For example: ORCID™, the ORCID logo, and iD logo are trademarks of ORCID, Inc. and used herein with permission .

DON’T

• Use the word “ORCID” to refer to services other than ORCID.
• Use “Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier” to represent the name of ORCID or the identifier; instead simply use “ORCID”.
• Use the word in plural or possessive form, i.e., “ORCIDs”, to refer to ORCID iDs.
• Hyphenate the name ORCID (as in “ORC-ID”)

ORCID logos and icons

You can find all of ORCID’s approved logos and iD icons assets in our Brand Library. ORCID Logos and iD icons must be used as provided, and must not be changed or altered in any way.

Logos for Member organizations and Certified Service Providers

We offer special logos to ORCID Member organizations and Certified Service Providers (CSPs) to indicate their status. If your organization is an ORCID Member or CSP, contact us to get your logo files. If you are not an ORCID Member or Certified Service Provider, you must not use these special logos, and if you are no longer an ORCID Member or Certified Service Provider you must cease their use as soon as you lose the corresponding status.

ORCID iD icons

For more information about the correct display of ORCID iDs and the use of the ORCID iD icon, in publications or in the user interfaces of products and services, visit our ORCID iD Display Guidelines page.

Using ORCID-branded assets in your applications, products, or domains

Using ORCID-branded assets in your applications, products, or domains

DO

• Name your website, product, or application something unique.

DON’T

• Use “ORCID” in the name of your website, application, or product without our prior permission.
• Use just “ORCID” with a simple letter or number combination (for example, ORCID#1, ORCIDid).
• Register a domain containing “ORCID,” including misspellings, transliterations, or similar variations thereof.
• Use “ORCID” as part of a subdomain (e.g. “https://orcid.example.com”) except as outlined below

Apply for a trademark with a name containing “ORCID,” including misspellings, transliterations, or similar variations thereof.

Visual design of your website or application

• DO design your site with your unique branding and logos.
• DON’T copy the look and feel of ORCID’s websites, as this could create user confusion.

Exceptions will only be made on a case-by-case basis with written approval. Please contact us if you feel that an exception is necessary for your application.

ORCID Brand Guidelines for Consortia or other Community Websites, Products and Services

Specific concerns with the use of ORCID in websites, products and services

As outlined in our blog post We won’t be sold – ORCID, we are a membership organization and by design we are set up to be responsive to the needs of our community. Although our member organizations collectively drive and control our direction through our community governance process, as an independent, open scholarly infrastructure non-profit organization that serves the entire global research community, we must avoid the appearance that ORCID is controlled by any particular organization or set of interests. Another major concern is potential confusion for those trying to access the official ORCID, website.

For these reasons, it should always be clear that member organizations, consortia, vendors and service providers do not represent ORCID or appear to be representing ORCID, nor should other organizations’ sites look like they could be the official ORCID site. It should be clear to anyone viewing another organization’s site—even those  who have never seen the official ORCID site—whether they are looking at the official ORCID site or a site run by a partner organization.

Anatomy of a url

The brand domain is the part of a url between the subdomain and the top-level domain (TLD). 

Use of the ORCID name in domains and subdomains

The use of “ORCID” as the entire brand domain is reserved exclusively for ORCID. The following guidelines outline the acceptable use of the ORCID name in domains and subdomains of community websites, products and services:

ORCID in brand domains

The use of the ORCID name as part of brand domains is reserved exclusively for ORCID consortia, and may not be used by other organizations or individuals.

• ORCID-us.org
• ORCID-us.edu

Using ORCID as the entire brand domain, regardless of TLD, is prohibited:

• ORCID.dk
• ORCID.de

IIn a few cases, our consortia are already using domains where ORCID appears as the entire brand domain. Explicit permission must be granted for any organization that wishes to continue to use ORCID as the entire brand domain and if granted, ownership of the ORCID.tld must be transferred to ORCID, and we will redirect the domain to the organization’s site.

ORCID in subdomains

This pattern may be used by organizations for information or services provided by that organization which are specific to ORCID. A link to the orcid.org homepage must be included on all landing pages, as well as an acknowledgement of the ORCID trademark.

Using ORCID as part of the subdomain:

• orcidpilot.jiscinvolve.org

Using ORCID as the entire subdomain:

• orcid.scopusfeedback.com

ORCID in URL paths

This is the most common, and acceptable use of orcid in a URL. This pattern may be used again for information or services provided by an organization which is specific to ORCID. We ask, but don’t require, that a link to the orcid.org homepage is included on all landing pages, as well as an acknowledgement of the ORCID trademark

• tamu.libguides.com/orcid
• libguides.ucd.ie/orcid
• scholarworks.duke.edu/orcid
• libguides.northwestern.edu/orcid
• www.library.pitt.edu/orcid
• www.plos.org/orcid
• www.lib.umich.edu/orcid
• www.libraries.rutgers.edu/orcid
• library.cern/orcid
• aaf.edu.au/orcid
• https://www.tuwien.at/kooperationen/orcid/

Other branding considerations for community websites

We understand that a lot of community content was created before these guidelines were drafted, and we assume that every single use of our name has been in good faith and motivated by excitement about advocating for ORCID. It is in this spirit that we’ve strived to make our guidelines easy to adhere to, our reasoning behind those guidelines clear, and to provide assistance to those whose use of the ORCID brand falls outside these guidelines. We remain open to feedback about ways we can make this clearer, and give more resources to our community to help them spread the word about ORCID and help them meet their own needs.

Specific permission must be granted for any websites that deviate from our standard domain usage and branding guidelines. This includes the use of ORCID logos and marks, orcid domains and ORCID site design. To request such permission, please contact us and include a visual mockup of intended use.

ORCID™ , the ORCID logo, and the iD logo are trademarks of ORCID, Inc.