ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is an initiative to build an open, non-profit and community-based registry of unique researcher identifiers. Unique researcher identifiers help your friends (and enemies), institutions (such as your current and future employers) and funding agencies link your research activities and outputs to you, and distinguish them from those of others who have similar names. With ORCID becoming integrated with an increasing number of assessment tools and application systems, getting your unique identifier through ORCID can, in the future, save you from the frustration of entering the same information over and over again. ORCID is expanding across disciplines and national boundaries, too, and your ORCID account is tied to you, not to your institutional affiliation, so you can take it with you anywhere.
Individual scholars should sign up for a free account in the ORCID Registry; this takes about 30 seconds. Once registered, you can manage the record of your career, publications and activities. More information.
What is ORCID? from ORCID on Vimeo.
Improves discoverability
Connects your work
Eliminates name ambiguity (especially useful for scholar with common last names); can bring together your work after name changes too
Stays with you throughout your career
Potential benefit: Reduce time-consuming data entry and activity reporting.