Persistent Identifiers
What are Persistent Identifiers?
A persistent identifier, or PID, is a “long-lasting reference to a digital resource. Unlike URLs, which may break, a persistent identifier reliably points to a digital entity” (definition from ORCID). PIDs are persistent due to the governance of and between participating organizations, removing the possibility of a single point of failure. The Office of Research Protections and Integrity (ORPI) strongly encourages researchers to create and use an ORCID iD.
What are some benefits of an ORCID iD for you?
Assigning and using PIDs provide great benefits to the broad research community. A PID . . .
- Eliminates problems with name similarities, variant spellings, name changes, etc.
- Allows researchers to populate their record like a CV
- Saves time: Enter once, reuse often (e.g., grant applications)
- Stays with you throughout your career
- Is interoperable with major research databases
Using PIDs facilitates the discoverability and citation of your research, and makes your research FAIR: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.
What do you need to do? It’s Simple!
- Don’t have an ORCID iD? Register for one at https://orcid.org/register
- Enter your name and email address(es) and click Next Step.
- Choose a password.
- Fill in your current employment information and click Next Step.
- Choose your visibility settings.
- Fill in terms and conditions to complete registration.
Once you’ve created your iD, build your ORCID record by adding:
- Biographical information
- Employment
- Education and Qualifications
- Invited Positions and Distinctions
- Memberships and Service
- Funding information
- Works produced
- Peer review activity
- Research Resources
ORCID Frequently Asked Questions
- I forgot my ORCID iD. How do I recover it?
- How do I update my email address?
- How do I reset my password?
- I accidentally made two ORCID iDs. How do I fix this?
- I lost access to my previously registered email, and I don’t remember my password. What do I do?
- Which publishers require authors to have an ORCID iD?
Other Common Identifiers
For Contributors
Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier (ORCID)
ORCID is a PID for researchers that records professional activities and disambiguates one researcher from another. An ORCID profile connects researchers with their contributions and affiliations over time, despite name changes or different name formats. It can be connected in some way to most other creator profiles, and is the most interoperable creator PID. ORCID profiles can be created and edited by researchers. Refer to the resources page and the ORCID Help Center for detailed assistance and tutorials.
ResearcherID is a unique identifier that differentiates researchers in the Web of Science. It is assigned to the researcher profile and it disambiguates researchers across Web of Science, InCites, and EndNote.
Scopus Author IDs are automatically assigned to authors with works indexed in the Scopus abstract and citation database. Scopus Author IDs can be linked with ORCID.
For Objects
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
A DOI is a digital identifier of an object, not an identifier of a digital object. DOIs can be assigned to any object, whether physical or digital. DOIs serve as unique, permanent numbers assigned to specific objects, and remain unchanged. They are the most common type of identifier for digital objects, particularly for scholarly, research, and technical publications.
For Organizations
Funder IDs are listed in the Crossref Funder Registry, an open registry of persistent identifiers for grant-giving organizations around the world. Funder IDs improve transparency of research funding by linking research with grant and funder information.
Global Research Identifier Database (GRID) ID
The GRID collects unambiguous institutional information and assigns a PID and metadata including aliases and addresses to each listed research institution. The GRID is available for download and reuse under a CC0 1.0 license.
Research Organization Registry (ROR) ID
ROR IDs are identifiers for research organizations. ROR IDs store metadata about organizations such as alternate names/abbreviations, external URLs, and other identifiers. The ROR ID database is based on seed data from GRID.