Small Publishers FAQ

Any journal or organization can collect iDs without joining ORCID, using our public API. ORCID membership requires your journal to pay an annual membership fee.

ORCID membership allows you to do more than just collect ORCID iDs. It entitles you to access the ORCID member API, which means you can connect information to your authors’ and reviewers’ ORCID records, and you can read information in their records that they have tagged as Trusted Parties (ORCID members), as well as their publicly available information.

As well as having access to the member API, you also benefit from:

1.    Technical and communications support from ORCID staff, who are based in 14 countries around the world and who collectively speak 13 languages
2.    Being listed as the source of information you add to ORCID records
3.    Receiving regular reports on the use of your ORCID integration (monthly for premium members, twice yearly for basic members)
4.    Getting advance warning of ORCID news, updates, and events via our monthly member newsletter
5.    Being able to nominate someone from your organization to stand for the ORCID Board and voting in our annual Board elections

You can check our list of members 

Please complete this form or contact us at membership@orcid.org

Yes – our fees are available on our membership page

Your journal won’t be a member in the sense that you can get direct technical support or stand for the ORCID Board/vote in Board elections. But, depending on the type of membership that your publisher or institution has, you may have access to other member benefits, such as using the member API.

We recommend that you read our written documentation and watch our brief video. If you still have questions and are an ORCID member, please contact https://support.orcid.org/hc/en-us; non-members can join the ORCID API Users Group.

Please see our Brand Guidelines for displaying ORCID in journal articles

We recommend that you read our written documentation and watch our brief video. If you still have questions and are an ORCID member, please contact https://support.orcid.org/hc/en-us; non-members can join the ORCID API Users Group

Please see our recommendations for displaying ORCID in journal articles

• The public API is available for everyone to use. It must be linked to an individual user’s ORCID iD and, if that individual leaves your organization, you will need to set up a new integration. You can use the public API to collect authenticated ORCID iDs and to read publicly available information in ORCID records

• The member API is only available to members. In addition to collection authenticated iDs and reading publicly available information, you can also read information marked Trusted Parties, and connect information to ORCID records, for example, about your authors’ publications. Basic membership entitles you to one set of credentials (one integration), while premium membership provides you with up to five sets of credentials (five integrations)

Yes (see question 10)

Yes. For more information, please read our documentation

• The publisher collects the author’s ORCID iD during the publishing process (usually during manuscript submission)

• The publisher includes the iD in the metadata when registering a DOI for the publication

• The author receives an email from the DOI registry (currently Crossref) asking permission to update their record OR the author creates a DataCite profile and links it to their ORCID record

• The author grants Crossref or DataCite permission to update their ORCID record (they only have to do this once)

• Every time Crossref or DataCite register a DOI that includes the author’s ORCID iD they automatically update their record

For more information, see https://www.crossref.org/community/orcid/

DOIs are persistent identifiers for objects, most commonly for publications of all sorts (journal articles, books, book chapters, datasets, etc). ORCID iDs are persistent identifiers for people, and specifically for people involved in the research community, whether directly — as researchers, authors, or reviewers, for example — or in supporting roles such as  librarians, publishers, funders, etc.

ORCID iDs are for individuals only. Publishers interact with ORCID by integrating with our APIs to collect iDs, and to import and export data from and to ORCID records. Learn more in our publishing workflows documentation