Connecting Researchers and Research

Sign in/Register
You are here: Home / Public Data File Use Policy

Public Data File Use Policy

ORCID, Inc. (“ORCID”) seeks to support broad access to ORCID Registry information for the research community. To that end, ORCID annually releases a Public Data File of all public data in the ORCID Registry associated with an ORCID record created or claimed by an individual. (By “claimed” we mean that where an organization has created an ORCID iD on behalf of an individual, the individual has acknowledged that the ORCID iD refers to him or her and has decided who should manage the information in the corresponding ORCID record and its privacy settings.)

License and Use Guidelines

The Public Data File is available under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal public domain dedication. This means that ORCID makes no copyright, related or neighboring rights claims to the aggregated data. Consistent with this broad waiver, ORCID does not impose any conditions on access to and use of the Public Data File. However, we remind you that ORCID can only waive rights that it owns; therefore, (i) the waiver does not apply to resources that are listed by links in an ORCID record, for example, journal articles, and (ii) the underlying data elements remain subject to any rights of the individuals featured, including rights of privacy and publicity. In respect of those individuals and in order to maximize the usefulness of this resource for the entire research and scholarly communications community, we request that you follow these community norms in using the Public Data File.

  • Spread the Word: Please give attribution to ORCID as the source of the Public Data File and link back to this page (https://info.orcid.org/public-data-file-use-policy/) where technologically feasible, to facilitate access for others.
  • Be Fair and Lawful: Do not modify any data so as to make it false, incomplete, defamatory, or misleading.
  • Respect Others: Respect the rights of privacy and publicity of the individuals featured in the Public Data File. In particular, do not use email to send junk mail, chain mail, spam, pyramid schemes, or other unsolicited bulk mail. If you are using email for commercial or other purposes, give people the opportunity to opt-out of receiving communications from you.
  • Keep us posted: We are very interested in hearing about ways in which people are making use of the Public Data File. Please contact us if you are willing to share your experiences.

Consistent with a CC0 waiver, the Public Data File is free for use, but it is also free of any warranties or guarantees that might come with a commercial license. ORCID accepts no liability for your use of any data in the Public Data File. For more details, please see the terms of the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal public domain dedication.

Please note that the CC0 waiver does not apply to use of the ORCID, Inc. name, the ORCID® service mark, and other ORCID marks and logos. For additional information about permissible use of the ORCID name, marks, and logos, please see our ORCID Brand Guidelines.

The Public Data File