Go get an ORCID iD!

What is an ORCID iD? Should you get one? What can you do with it? If you are a researcher or a scholar it might be worth you signing up for one. Here’s why …

What is an ORCID?

An Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) is a 16 digit, persistent, name independent unique identifier. From ORCID site “ founded specifically to help solve the problem of name ambiguity in research and to enable transparent and trustworthy connections between researchers, their contributions, and their affiliations.”

So even if you change names or affiliations your ORCID remains the same and “follows” you through your career. Read more about ORCID from the official site.

And … It is free to obtain

What’s it used for?

Many publishers and institutions are using ORCID to seamlessly share information between data systems, so the next article you submit for publication, expect to see a field asking for it! Outside of publishers, you can use it in your R package development and link your software development skills to your scientific publishing.

Simply, add to the DESCRIPTION file of you R package and, if you use pkgdown, which you should , it will propagate to the online documentation. For example:

Simply by by adding this snippet of code, (of course, you’ll have your own 16 digit code when you sign up!)

Authors@R: 
    person(given = "Andy",family = "Beet", role = c("aut", "cre"),
           email = "andrew.beet@noaa.gov",
           comment = c(ORCID = "0000-0001-8270-7090"))

… results in pkgdown displaying hyperlinked icons, , in two locations, the home page and the citation page, displaying something like this:

For more info on the benefits of using pkgdown to showcase your R package, you might find the post on Enhancing R packages useful.

So go on, get yourself an ORCID iD!!