ORCID first published our iD display guidelines in 2013. There has been a steady increase since then in the number of journal publishers using ORCID, and some publishers have now started to require ORCID for submitting or all authors. To date, more than 250,000 articles have included ORCID iDs in the metadata they submit to Crossref.
To make sure our guidelines reflect and support this growing use of ORCID iDs in journal articles, in July 2016 we formed a community working group to review our policies in light of current practice. After collecting questions, suggestions, and use cases from the community, the working group submitted their recommended guidelines for review by ORCID’s Executive Committee. The revised guidelines were posted for public comment from February 2017 through the end of March 2017.
We have incorporated your comments and feedback and now are releasing the guidelines to the public. In parallel, we also have updated our Trademark and iD Display Guidelines.
Recommended iD display
The journal iD display guidelines recommend that ORCID iDs should be displayed in all formats of the article (HTML, PDF, EPUB, etc.). The iDs must be clearly associated with their respective authors, and always include an active hyperlink to the ORCID URI.
The recommended display is the green ORCID iD icon followed by the full iD URI (https[s] scheme optional). The iD icon should be scaled to the text, and both icon and URI should be hyperlinked to the ORCID URI:
Author A .gif)
orcid.org/0000-0001-2345-6789
Where the URI scheme (https:// or https://) is included, the guidelines strongly encourage https:
Author B https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5727-2427
Where there are space concerns in the author list, such as in articles with more than 50 authors (hyperauthored articles), the guidelines recommend that the hyperlinked iD icon alone be used, or that iDs be listed in a separate section:
Author list
Author A , Author F, Author K, Author M , Author Q
ORCID iDs
Author A orcid.org/0000-0002-1825-0097
Author M orcid.org/0000-0001-5727-2427
Author Q orcid.org/0000-0001-2345-6789
Download the iD icon at Trademark and iD Display Guidelines and ORCID repository in web and vector format to use in your layouts. Contact us if you need the icon in another format.
Going forward
There were some issues raised by the working group and members of the community which the guidelines did not address, and which we hope to address in future:
- Display ORCID iDs in article metadata: We received several comments on how iDs should be displayed in article PDF (XMP) and HTML, which went beyond the scope of the guidelines and group’s expertise. We welcome suggestions from the community, which we can feed into a future working group.
- Display effectiveness assessment: We received limited feedback on how to measure effective iD display, and therefore recommend that these questions be considered by a future working group as iD display is more widely adopted.
Thanks to our working group members
A group of 14 volunteers from the community responded to our call and worked with two ORCID staff to draft the iD display guidelines. The group’s members included a range of stakeholders, with representatives from publishers, academic libraries, and scholarly societies. We extend our thanks to the members of this working group!
| Ben Bowyer Taylor & Francis (UK) |
Antonia Johnston orcid.org/0000-0002-9857-7064 British Medical Journal (UK) |
| Cory Craig orcid.org/0000-0002-9221-8466 University of California – Davis (USA) |
Jeff Lang orcid.org/0000-0003-4895-0278 American Chemical Society (USA) |
| David Burgoyne Taylor & Francis (UK) |
Craig Raybould orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-7701 Hindawi (UK) |
| Scott Dineen Optical Society of America (USA) |
Peter Strickland orcid.org/0000-0001-6555-0837 International Union of Crystallographers (UK) |
| Nicholas Everitt orcid.org/0000-0001-8343-8910 Taylor & Francis (UK) |
Edward Wates orcid.org/0000-0003-3210-6080 Wiley (UK) |
| Justin Gonder University of California – Office of the President (USA) |
John Walker Wiley (USA) |
| Christina Hoppermann orcid.org/0000-0001-8858-7536 Springer Nature (Germany) |
Leslie Walker American Chemical Society (USA) |
| Chris Ingle Institute of Physics (UK) |
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How are you displaying iDs?
Let us know. We’d love to have real-life examples to share with the community, as well as hear your feedback. Let us know at community@orcid.org or share on Twitter and tag @ORCID_Org.
