Research Guidance
🔑 Research Guidance

ORCID iD Explained: What It Is and Why Every Researcher Should Have One

📅 August 2026 🕑 7 min read 👤 IJRTI Editorial Team 👁 Research Guidance
ORCID Researcher Identity DOI
📜 Table of Contents

If you've submitted to a journal recently and been asked for your "ORCID iD" alongside your name and affiliation, here's what that field is actually for — and why it's becoming close to mandatory across academic publishing.

What Is an ORCID iD?

An ORCID iD (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a free, unique 16-digit identifier that permanently connects your name to your research output — papers, datasets, grants, peer reviews — throughout your entire career, regardless of name changes or moving between institutions.

Why Your Name Alone Isn't a Reliable Identifier

Names are surprisingly unreliable as unique identifiers in academic publishing: multiple researchers can share the same name, an author's name can change over time, and the same name can be written or transliterated differently across different publications and databases. An ORCID iD removes that ambiguity entirely, attributing every piece of your work to one unambiguous identity.

Who Actually Requires It

  • Funders — many major grant funders now require ORCID iDs on applications
  • Publishers and conferences — an increasing number require or strongly encourage an ORCID iD to submit or register a publication
  • Your own future self — one identifier you keep for your entire career, saving repeated form-filling and correctly linking your output across every institution you ever work at

ORCID vs DOI: Person vs Publication

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Easy to conflate, but they identify entirely different things: a DOI identifies one specific publication (a single journal article). An ORCID iD identifies one specific person, across every publication they produce over their entire career. See What Is a DOI? for the publication-level identifier explained in full.

How to Set One Up

  1. Register for free at orcid.org with your name and email
  2. Add your existing publications manually, or connect it to Crossref/DataCite so new DOI-registered papers link automatically
  3. Include your ORCID iD on every future manuscript submission, alongside your name and affiliation
  4. Keep it as your one permanent researcher identity, regardless of future institutional changes
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Submitting to IJRTI? Including your ORCID iD alongside your submission strengthens your paper's metadata and long-term discoverability. See Call for Paper guidelines.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. What is an ORCID iD?
A free, unique 16-digit identifier that permanently connects your name to your research output throughout your career, regardless of name changes or institutional moves.
Q2. Why do I need an ORCID iD if I already have a name?
Names alone aren't reliable identifiers — people share names, change names, or write them differently across publications, making it hard to correctly attribute work without a unique identifier.
Q3. Do journals require an ORCID iD to submit?
Many publishers and conferences now require or strongly encourage an ORCID iD for submission and registration, since it links your publications and outputs to one persistent, verifiable identity.
Q4. Is ORCID the same as a DOI?
No. A DOI identifies a specific publication (like a journal article). An ORCID iD identifies a specific person, across every publication they produce over their entire career.
Q5. Is ORCID free?
Yes. Registering for and using an ORCID iD is completely free for researchers.
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