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Persistent Identifiers

NTL Guide to DOIs & ORCID iDs for DOT Researchers

What Is an Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID iD)?

Open Researcher and Contributor IDs (ORCID iDs) 

Open Researcher and Contributor IDs (ORCID iDs) enable identification, linking and discovery between researchers. ORCID provides a registry where individuals may obtain a unique PID, which can be used in connection with their research and scholarly workflows.

The ORCID iD is for anyone involved in research, scholarship or innovation. ORCID’s mission is: "to enable transparent and trustworthy connections between researchers, their contributions, and affiliations by providing an identifier for individuals to use with their name as they engaged in research, scholarship and innovation activities."

 

An ORCID iD can be used throughout the research process, for example when a researcher writes a data management plan, deposits a dataset into a repository, or accesses a dataset for analysis purposes. [1]

Who manages ORCID?

ORCID iDs are managed by a nonprofit organization by the same name and designed to serve individuals, research and scholarly organizations, data repositories and libraries, publishers, patent offices, service providers, etc. 

Looking Forward

Over the past couple of years ORCID has been working with funding organizations to further integrate ORCID iDs into the research process. The funding researchers receive is an important part of their research that should be attributed to them. As a result, ORCID has provided tools, tips, and support for integrating ORCID iDs into research workflows. Furthermore, ORCID's inclusion is designed to help both researchers and funders. 

Why ORCID iDs Are Important for Your Research

Why ORCID iDs Are Important for Your Research

ORCID iDs are designed for anyone who participates in research, scholarship, or innovation, and will serve as a persistent identifier throughout their career.

 

After registering for an ORCID iD a researcher can grant permission to the systems and platforms they use (such as their research institution or a publisher of one of their articles) to update their ORCID record, allowing for easy and error-free sharing and re-use of the information. Ideally, this will save time for researchers as well as make relevant connections between works and organizations. [2]

Why should you register for an ORCID iD?

  • An ORCID iD distinguishes you and ensures your research outputs and activities are correctly attributed to you.
  • It reliably and easily connects you with your contributions and affiliations.
  • It reduces form-filling (enter data once, re-use it often).
  • It improves recognition and discoverability for you and your research outputs.
  • It is interoperable (works with many institutions, funders, and publishers).
  • It is persistent (enduring).

Using an ORCID iD will ensure accurate attribution to researchers, since many researchers:

  • share the same or similar name
  • work or publish under different versions of their name
  • change their name
  • have their name transliterated
  • change institution
  • move to a different country
  • study multiple disciplines

Regardless of these changes, a researcher’s ORCID iD will remain the same and it can be used across hundreds of research information systems, ensuring that research will always be connected to the correct researcher.

Funders, publishers and repositories have also started integrating ORCID iDs into their grant application workflows and grantee profile records. [3]

NTL is one of the organizations that now requires contributors to have or acquire an ORCID iD when submitting an object to the ROSA P repository. 

ORCIDs are currently required by USDOT and have been required since 2016

To read more about how to comply with Department of Transportation requirements, view our How to Comply page.

How to Use ORCID iDs

How to Use ORCID iDs

Both the number of ORCID iDs issued and their use across the research landscape are growing. Researchers are utilizing ORCID iDs in a number of ways:

  • linking it with other IDs, such as International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI), Researcher ID, Scopus Author ID, etc. 
  • including it in their author listing on a publication
  • listing it on CVs, resumes, web pages, email signatures, business cards, or other public profiles

In addition, some metadata standards now include an optional field for the inclusion of a contributor ID or person ID. 

ORCID iDs can be displayed in a number of places to link works to a specific researcher, such as a personal website, publications, grant applications, etc. ORCID's current recommended display of an ORCID iD is a full https URL preceded by the iD icon, both hyperlinked to the https URI: 

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4962-1380

For more information on how to display ORCID iDs check out the ORCID trademark and iD display guidelines. 

Six Ways to Make Your ORCID iD Work for You! provides additional information on how to make the most of an ORCID iD. 

Below are some examples taken from publications in ROSAP, to demonstrate how contributors have displayed their ORCID iDs within their work. 

Commodity Flow Survey 2012 [supporting datasets]​

 

Disambiguating Transportation Authors with Unique ORCID Identifiers [poster]

Opening Transportation Data for Innovation : Getting Our Public Access Bits in a Row [poster]