Verified as of 27 September 2026.
ORCID assigns a persistent identifier to everyone who researches, creates, teaches or publishes. It has a specific function: to prevent your name from being confused with someone else's and to connect your work to you even if you change your byline, institution or country.
It is not a CV, a social network or a mark of quality. For anyone working across universities, publishers, repositories and artistic practice, it is infrastructure for identification and for linking data.
What an ORCID iD is
It is an identifier expressed as a web address and made up of sixteen characters:
https://orcid.org/0000-0000-0000-0000
The last character is a check digit and may be an upper-case X. The full identifier should not be shortened by dropping leading zeros.
Registration is free. The holder controls the associated information, its visibility and the permissions granted to trusted organisations or individuals. The ORCID iD remains publicly visible; the other items can be set to different levels of access.
The identifier solves a common problem in the humanities: a name does not always identify someone unambiguously. There are namesakes, changes of surname, abbreviated bylines, artist names and transliterations.
I sign my academic articles as Juan A. Esteban Ruiz and the rest of my work as Juan A. Esteban. The identifier lets both forms be linked to the same person without obliging me to use the same public byline every time.
On its own, ORCID does not prove:
- that a work is authentic;
- that a person is the material author of everything added;
- that a publication has undergone peer review;
- that an affiliation is still current;
- that a work has quality or relevance;
- that every item of data has been checked by an institution.
The record shows the source of each item. An affiliation added by the holder is not the same as one added by the institution itself through an authorised system.
Setting up the record
The person concerned should register themselves. It is not a good idea for a university, a publisher or an assistant to create the record on their behalf.
When you set it up:
- use an email address you will keep access to;
- add a second address for account recovery;
- enter the main form of your name;
- record the variants you have signed with;
- check the default visibility;
- keep and use the full address of the identifier.
Do not open a second ORCID when you change institution, name or field of work. It is designed to stay with you throughout your career. If you find that you have duplicate records, resolve the duplication before adding more information.
What to complete
You do not need to fill in every field. A useful record usually includes:
- name and variants;
- current and previous affiliations;
- published works;
- a reference website;
- a few keywords;
- funding, review, or service where relevant.
Publish only what serves a purpose and what you can keep up to date. A short, current record is more useful than a full, abandoned one.
ORCID distinguishes several kinds of institutional relationship, including employment, education, qualifications, memberships, service, distinctions and invited positions. Do not present a one-off collaboration as employment or keep an affiliation that has ended as current.
What counts as a work
In ORCID, 'work' refers to research outputs or contributions in a broad sense. It can include:
- articles;
- books and chapters;
- preprints;
- conference papers and presentations;
- datasets;
- software;
- reports;
- theses;
- translations;
- other outputs accepted by the system.
In the arts and humanities some outputs do not fit neatly into categories designed largely for scholarly communication. An exhibition, a curatorial project or an artwork can be added if there is a reasonable type, an accurate description and a stable link. Do not force a category to turn any professional activity into a 'work'.
Before adding a work, check:
- whether there is an identifiable output;
- whether it can be linked to a stable page or a repository;
- whether the chosen category describes it accurately enough;
- whether it will distinguish it from other works;
- whether to record the work, the publication that documents it or both.
How to add works
ORCID offers several ways to add works:
- importing them from connected services;
- adding a work via a DOI or PMID;
- importing a BibTeX file;
- entering the data manually.
When a reliable connected source exists, it is usually better to use it. After each import, check:
- title;
- authorship;
- date;
- work type;
- publisher or organisation;
- identifier;
- URL;
- version;
- duplicates.
Automatic import saves effort, but it does not guarantee that the metadata are correct.
ORCID, DOI and repository
ORCID identifies a person. A DOI identifies a work or a specific version, depending on how it has been registered. The repository preserves and publishes the file.
With a preprint, the usual workflow is as follows:
- you deposit the work in a repository and include your ORCID in the metadata;
- the repository assigns a DOI;
- the DOI is incorporated into your ORCID record;
- the record shows which source added or updated the item.
This is how I use Zenodo and PhilArchive for my articles, as I explain in How to publish your first preprint. None of the three pieces replaces the others.
Be careful with versions. A preprint and the published article are related outputs, but not necessarily the same version. The same applies to one edition and the next, to a translation and its original and to a conference paper and the article developed from it. If they have different identifiers, they can coexist in the record as long as the description does not present them as a single object.
And artistic practice
ORCID does not replace the inventory, the dossier or the master artwork record. It is not designed to record the dimensions, materials, owners or movements of each piece.
It can, however, connect your identity with public, stable outputs of your practice, for example:
- a catalogue with an ISBN or DOI;
- artistic research deposited in a repository;
- an exhibition documented through a stable publication;
- a curatorial text;
- a dataset;
- the technical documentation of a work;
- software related to an artistic project.
If a work has no stable reference, it is usually more useful to document it in your own archive and record in ORCID the publication or deposit that makes it identifiable.
Visibility and trusted organisations
ORCID offers three visibility levels for the data in a record:
- visible to everyone;
- visible to trusted parties;
- visible only to the record holder and authorised trusted individuals.
The ORCID iD is always public. Do not make any other item visible just because the field exists. Pay particular attention to email addresses, previous names, ended affiliations and location information.
When you connect ORCID to a publisher, a university or a repository, the service asks for specific permissions. Depending on what you authorise, an organisation can:
- obtain your verified ORCID iD;
- read information that is public or shared with trusted parties;
- add works, affiliations or other activities;
- update or delete items it has added itself.
It cannot change items added by you or by other organisations. You can revoke its permissions. Once revoked, it will no longer add or edit information, although it can still delete the items it added itself.
Before you authorise:
- check the name of the service;
- read the permissions requested;
- do not grant access through suspicious links;
- review connected organisations regularly;
- revoke those you no longer need.
What ORCID is not
ORCID is not a CV. A CV selects information according to who will read it; ORCID maintains persistent connections between a person, their contributions and their affiliations.
Do not use the record to list every group exhibition, press mention or workshop you attended. Nor should you present it as proof of relevance or a personal seal of verification.
Having an ORCID does not justify a Wikipedia article. Nor does adding the identifier to Wikidata show that all related works are yours, as I explain in How Wikipedia works. ORCID identifies and connects. On its own, it does not certify the quality, relevance or material authorship of everything declared.
An annual review
Once a year, check:
- recovery email addresses;
- the main form of your name;
- ended affiliations;
- new publications;
- duplicates;
- visibility settings;
- organisations and individuals with access;
- broken links;
- data added by third parties.
Include your ORCID iD in academic bylines, deposits, proposals and publishing systems where useful. Use the full address of the identifier.
On the open conversation
This guide explains the general use of ORCID in the arts and humanities, based on its official documentation and my own practice as a researcher. The interface, work types and integrations change. Before connecting a service or granting permissions, check the current documentation.
If you use ORCID in artistic research or know of a workflow worth including, write to me.