What Is an ORCID iD? Why Researchers Need One Before Journal Submission

An ORCID iD (often searched for as “ORCID ID”) is a free, persistent 16-character identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher, no matter how common your name is. Formatted as a URL such as orcid.org/0000-0002-1825-0097, it stays with you for your entire career, and a growing number of journals request it, and in some cases require it, from corresponding authors during manuscript submission. This guide explains what an ORCID iD actually is, why publishers ask for it, how an authenticated ORCID iD differs from one you simply type in, and exactly what to check before you submit.

What Is an ORCID iD?

ORCID stands for Open Researcher and Contributor ID. An ORCID iD is a free, persistent, name-independent identifier issued by ORCID, a global non-profit organization, specifically to solve the problem of name ambiguity in research. It is sometimes called an ORCID number, or referred to more generally as an author identifier or a digital identifier for researchers, though ORCID’s own branding uses “ORCID iD,” with a lowercase i and uppercase D, a distinction explained in ORCID’s own guide to what an ORCID iD is.

Technically, an ORCID iD is a 16-character code, not strictly a 16-digit number, because the final checksum character can be either a digit or the letter X. In practice this rarely matters, but it is the more accurate description if you are citing the identifier’s format.

Anyone who might find an ORCID iD useful can register for one. There is no requirement to hold an institutional affiliation and no formal test of who “qualifies” as a researcher; the registry is open to authors, reviewers, students, and other contributors to the research process.

What Problem Does an ORCID iD Solve?

The core problem is name ambiguity. Common names, name changes after marriage or transliteration, and inconsistent formatting across databases- for example, Sofia Maria Hernandez Garcia appearing as S. Hernandez in one journal and Sofia M. Garcia in another- all make it difficult for publishers, funders, and indexing databases to reliably connect one researcher to their complete body of work. An ORCID iD helps resolve that ambiguity by providing a persistent reference point that stays attached to you regardless of how your name is written, where you work, or how many times you change fields or institutions.

What Can Your ORCID Record Do for You?

Your ORCID record is the profile of information connected to your ORCID iD. Once it is set up and connected to the systems you use, it can:

• Help ensure your research outputs and activities are correctly attributed to you
• Connect your affiliations, funding, peer review activity, and publications in one place
• Reduce repetitive form filling, since information entered once can be reused across connected systems
• Improve the discoverability of your work for potential collaborators and readers
• Stay with you through changes in name, employer, location, or field of study

Note: an ORCID iD reduces attribution errors and streamlines data reuse; it does not guarantee that every external database will always display your information correctly, since that also depends on the integrations and permissions you set up.

Why Do Researchers Need an ORCID iD for Journal Submission?

Journals increasingly build ORCID collection into their manuscript submission systems for a few practical reasons. It gives editors and publishers a reliable way to confirm who submitted a paper, separate from name spelling or institutional email changes. It lets submission systems auto-populate profile fields such as name, affiliation history, and past publications where an integration exists, saving authors time on repetitive entry. And it gives funders and institutions a consistent way to track research output linked to a specific person rather than a name string that might match several people.

Do All Journals Require an ORCID iD?

Not universally, and requirements vary by publisher and sometimes by individual journal within the same publisher’s portfolio. A number of major publishers were early adopters of formal ORCID requirements for corresponding authors, including IEEE, Springer Nature, Wiley, PLOS, SAGE, the American Chemical Society, and JMIR Publications, among others, according to ORCID’s own publisher adoption record, and thousands of journals now collect ORCID iDs from corresponding authors through their submission systems. That said, the specific rule, whether it applies to the corresponding author only or to every co-author, and whether it is mandatory or simply requested, differs from journal to journal.

The safest approach is to check the target journal’s own “Instructions for Authors” or submission guidelines before you assume either way. If you would rather have that confirmed for you alongside the rest of your journal shortlist, our Journal Selection Service cross-checks a manuscript’s scope against journal requirements, ORCID policy included, before you commit time to formatting and submission.

ORCID iD vs ORCID Record vs Authenticated ORCID iD

These three terms get used loosely, but they mean different things, and the third one is exactly the distinction most beginner guides skip.

• ORCID iD: the identifier itself, the 16-character code and URL that is uniquely yours.
• ORCID record: the profile of data connected to that iD, including your affiliations, works, and funding history.
• Authenticated ORCID iD: what happens when you sign in to ORCID directly inside a publisher’s submission system and grant it permission to read or write to your record, rather than typing your iD into a text field.

The distinction matters at submission time. ORCID’s own certification criteria for manuscript submission systems favor authenticated collection, since a sign-in confirms the iD genuinely belongs to the person submitting, rather than relying on someone correctly remembering and typing a 16-character code. In practice, this is what it looks like on a real submission system: Taylor & Francis journals using ScholarOne Manuscripts or Editorial Manager have authors connect their ORCID iD from the account or profile settings screen, where they sign in and authorize the connection, instead of manually entering the number.

If a journal’s submission portal offers a “Connect your ORCID iD” or “Sign in with ORCID” button rather than a plain text field, use that option. It takes the same amount of time and produces a more trustworthy record on the publisher’s side.

How to Create a Free ORCID iD

Registering for an ORCID iD is free and, according to ORCID’s own registration guide, takes less than a minute for the basic step. The current registration form asks for:

• Your given name and email address (the two required identifying data items)
• A password, entered twice, meeting ORCID’s minimum length and character requirements
• Current employment details, which is an optional step you can skip
• Your default visibility setting for future information added to your record
• Agreement to ORCID’s terms of use and privacy policy, plus a human verification check

You do not need an institutional email address to register, and you own the record afterward, meaning you decide what to add, update, or share. See ORCID’s own registration guide for the current field-by-field walkthrough.

How to Set Up Your ORCID Record Before Submission

Add a backup email address

Adding at least one additional email address, ideally a personal one if your primary address is institutional, makes it far less likely you will lose access to your record if you change jobs or lose access to a university inbox.

Review your visibility settings

Your ORCID iD itself is always publicly visible. Everything else on your record, your works, affiliations, and funding, can be set individually to Everyone, Trusted Parties, or Only Me, as explained in ORCID’s own visibility settings guide. The default for your name is Everyone; the default for your email is Only Me. Many researchers choose to keep most professional information public so collaborators and manuscript systems can find and use it, while keeping personal contact details private.

Add your existing publications to ORCID

Under the Works section of your record, use the “Search & link” option to connect to databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, and Crossref. These integrations let you search for and import existing publications into your ORCID record instead of entering each work manually, which is by far the fastest way to build out a complete ORCID record.

How to Add Your Authenticated ORCID iD During Manuscript Submission

When a journal’s submission system supports it, sign in with ORCID directly rather than typing your iD into a field. This is usually available from the account or profile screen of platforms like ScholarOne Manuscripts, Editorial Manager, or a publisher’s own portal, and takes about the same time as pasting the number in manually.

Some journals also request an ORCID iD from every co-author, not only the corresponding author, particularly where the journal’s own instructions specify it. Check the target journal’s author guidelines to confirm who needs to provide one.

If the journal specifically requests an ORCID iD in the cover letter or manuscript file, follow its author instructions. Otherwise, provide or authenticate your ORCID iD through the journal’s submission system where requested, rather than assuming it belongs in every cover letter by default. If you have not prepared that document yet, our guide on how to write a cover letter for journal submission covers what a given journal’s instructions typically ask a corresponding author to include.

ORCID vs Google Scholar vs ResearchGate

These three are often confused because all three involve a researcher profile, but they serve different purposes, and none of them substitute for the others.

Feature	ORCID	Google Scholar	ResearchGate
What it is	Persistent researcher identifier	Citation tracking and discovery profile	Academic social network
Persistent identifier	Yes, an assigned 16-character ID	No formal identifier standard	No formal identifier standard
Used in submission systems	Yes, widely integrated by publishers	Not used for manuscript submission	Not used for manuscript submission
Works added	Manually or via Search and link to Scopus, Crossref, WoS	Automatically indexed from the web	Uploaded or self-added by the researcher
Best used for	Consistent researcher identification and attribution across journals, funders, and institutions	Tracking citations and h-index	Sharing papers and networking with peers

Many researchers maintain all three; they are complementary, not competing, and only ORCID functions as a formal identifier inside manuscript submission workflows.

ORCID iD for Students and Early Career Researchers

You do not need to have published anything, or hold a faculty position, to register for an ORCID iD. PhD students planning to publish dissertation chapters as standalone articles, master’s students co-authoring their first paper, and early career researchers applying for their first grant all benefit from registering early, since the identifier stays with you through every institution change that follows, including your first postdoc or job move after graduation.

Common ORCID Mistakes to Avoid

• Creating a second account with a different email instead of recovering access to an existing one
• Typing your iD manually into a submission system when an authenticated sign-in option is offered
• Leaving default visibility settings unreviewed after registration
• Skipping a backup email address, which risks losing access to the account
• Assuming every journal in a publisher’s portfolio has identical ORCID requirements
• Forgetting to include the ORCID iD in your CV or wherever a journal’s own instructions specifically ask for it

ORCID Checklist Before You Submit Your Manuscript

☐  Confirm you do not already have an ORCID iD before registering a new one

☐  Add a current email address and at least one backup email address

☐  Review your name, affiliation, and visibility settings

☐  Link your existing publications using Search and link

☐  Use the journal’s authenticated sign-in option during submission where available

☐  Ask co-authors whether the target journal requires their ORCID iDs too

☐  Check whether the target journal’s cover letter or author instructions ask for your ORCID iD

☐  Verify the target journal’s current author instructions directly, rather than assuming

Should You Add Your ORCID iD to Your CV?

Listing your ORCID iD on an academic CV gives readers, a hiring committee, a grant panel, or a journal editor a persistent link to your ORCID record, where they can view the research works, affiliations, and other professional information you have made publicly available. It can be useful to include your ORCID iD near your contact or researcher-profile information on an academic CV, keeping in mind that ORCID is a researcher-controlled record rather than an independently verified profile, as ORCID’s own explanation of how it differs from other researcher identifiers makes clear.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is an ORCID iD free to register?

Yes. Registration is free for individual researchers and always will be; ORCID’s membership fees apply only to institutions and organizations that integrate with the registry, not to individual account holders.

Do all journals require an ORCID iD?

No. Many major publishers request or require it from corresponding authors, but the exact rule varies by journal. Check the specific journal’s author guidelines to confirm.

What is the difference between an ORCID iD and an authenticated ORCID iD?

An ORCID iD is the identifier itself. An authenticated ORCID iD is one that was connected to a system by signing in directly through ORCID, rather than typed into a field, which confirms it genuinely belongs to that user.

Can I have more than one ORCID iD?

You should not. Each researcher is meant to hold a single ORCID iD for life. If you think you may have registered twice, use ORCID’s account recovery process rather than creating a third account.

Is ORCID the same as Google Scholar?

No. ORCID is a persistent identifier used across publishers, funders, and institutions, while Google Scholar is a citation-tracking profile. They serve different purposes, and most researchers use both.

Do all co-authors need an ORCID iD, or just the corresponding author?

This depends on the journal. Some publishers require it only from the corresponding author, while others request it from every listed author. Confirm this in the target journal’s submission guidelines.

Final Thoughts

An ORCID iD is a small, one-time setup step that removes a recurring source of friction from academic publishing: helping your work remain correctly and consistently associated with you across the research systems you interact with over your career. Registering, connecting your existing publications, and using the authenticated sign-in option where it is offered takes a few minutes and pays off every time you submit again.

If you would like help preparing the rest of your submission package alongside your ORCID setup, cover letter, formatting, and journal-specific requirements, our Journal Submission Support Service manages that process end to end. And if you are earlier in the process and want the complete picture of what comes before and after submission, our step-by-step guide on how to publish a research paper covers the full journey from manuscript to acceptance.