Introduction

ORCID shares a Public Data File at least annually on the anniversary of our initial launch in October 2012. Sharing the annual public data file is one of our key principles. We release the file to ensure that all stakeholders, including organizations that are not members of ORCID, have broad access to what we hope becomes a vital part of the scholarly communication infrastructure.

Use of data in the file is governed by our Privacy Policy (excerpt below):

ORCID is releasing the Public Data File under a CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication developed by Creative Commons. Accordingly, ORCID will not impose restrictions or conditions (including those contained in the Terms and Conditions of Use and the Membership Agreement) on use of the Public Data File, but has posted recommended community norms for use.

Premium ORCID member organizations can also access the public data file on demand using the public data sync process. Contact us to learn more.

Note: If you are seeking information about how many ORCID record holders are at your institution, we recommend the processes described at our Member Support Center rather than downloading the public data file.

Important notes

While we make this data available for use, we generally do not provide support for the data file.

Getting the public data file

Download the public data file

Visit the below links to download the annual public data file.

To the extent possible under law, ORCID, Inc has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to ORCID Public Data File. This work is published from: United States.

Software to access the file

Windows: A tool to unpack tar files such as Winrar or 7zip
Mac: No additional software needed
XML-JSON conversion: From 2018, the file is provided only in XML format. Read on to learn how to generate JSON versions of the file.

Process

Download the file from the links above. Each year’s data file may include multiple tar.gz files. For example, the 2018 file includes one tar.gz archive for all ORCID records and one tar.gz archive for all record activities.
Windows: Use the tool (Winrar or 7zip) that you downloaded to unzip the tar.gz file; this will result in a single .tar file (which may appear with no extension). You may be required to run the tool a second time on the .tar file to unpack it.
Mac: Double-click the tar.gz file to unzip it; this will result in a single .tar file (which may appear with no extension). Double-click the .tar file to unpack it.
The output folder for each file will differ depending on the year that the file was generated and XSD version.

2013-2017: Inside the generated folder you will find multiple folders, for example json/ and xml/. Inside each folder is one file for each ORCID record in the specified format and XSD version.
2018+, records file: Inside the generated folder you will find one folder, summary/, which contains multiple folders containing individual ORCID records in XML format. The records are aggregated into subfolders based on a shared final three digits of the ORCID iD.
2018+, activity file: Inside the generated folder you will find multiple folders for each ORCID record. Each folder will include the full activities on each ORCID record in XML format, separated by activity subsection.

Using the public file

The file contains the public information associated with each user's ORCID record. Each record is included as a separate file in both JSON and XML in the 2013-2017 files. In the 2018 file, each record is included as a separate file in XML, and each full activity section for each record is included as a separate file in XML. For those who prefer JSON, use the ORCID Conversion Library to convert the XML files to JSON.

For the XSD required to interpret the files, see the ORCID GitHub repository.