Welcome! Registering your ORCID iD is an online process that should take less than one minute. You own your ORCID record and, after registering for it yourself, you will be able to update or add information -- or give others permission to do so -- by signing into your account.
This guide will familiarize you with the ORCID registration form.
After submitting your registration, you will be directed to your new ORCID record. Make sure you look for a welcome message from ORCID asking you to verify your email address. If you don’t see it in your main email inbox, check your spam or junk folder.
Registration fields
Below is a description of the registration fields. All required fields that are not completed or requires attention will be highlighted in red. Click on the "i" icon next to any field for more information.
- First name (required): Your given name, or the name you most commonly go by. If you only have one name, you should record it here. This is the only required name field, and is limited to 150 characters.
- Last name: Your family, surname, or last name. This is not a required field, as ORCID is a global service and supports many naming conventions, but you should always include it if you have one. This field is limited to 150 characters.
- Email addresses:
- Primary email (required): Your primary email address, entered twice for confirmation. You will use your email address (or ORCID iD) with your password to sign in to the ORCID Registry.
- Additional email (strongly recommended): Your secondary (backup) email address. It is strongly recommended that you provide at least one additional email address on registration. This will ensure you can still use your ORCID record if you lose access to your primary email. If you added an institutional email as your primary address, we recommend adding a personal one as backup. You can use any email address connected to your ORCID record, with your password, to sign in to the ORCID Registry. You can add as many additional email addresses as you wish.
- Email error messages:
- An account already exists: You will see a warning message if your email address is already associated with an ORCID iD. You cannot create a second account using the same email address. Reset your password to restore access to the account.
- A deactivated record exists: You will see a warning message if your email address is associated with a previously deactivated ORCID record. You can request a link to reactivate the account at the email address(es) on record. Learn more about deactivating an ORCID account.
- An unclaimed record exists: You will see a warning message if an account associated with your email address was previously created for you by your institution. You can request a message to activate the record by clicking the “resend the claim email” link or by entering your address at resend claim email. Note that institutions are no longer permitted to create records for their researchers, so this is a legacy issue that will only affect a small number of people. Learn more about the importance of opt-in.
- An account already exists: You will see a warning message if your email address is already associated with an ORCID iD. You cannot create a second account using the same email address. Reset your password to restore access to the account.
- Primary email (required): Your primary email address, entered twice for confirmation. You will use your email address (or ORCID iD) with your password to sign in to the ORCID Registry.
- Password (required): A password of your choice. Enter it twice to confirm. Passwords must be at least eight characters long and contain at least one number and one alphabetical character or symbol. For more information about what can be included in a password click the "i" icon next to the password box. As you type a password, the required conditions for a password will be checked off and highlighted in green. Very commonly used passwords are not permitted.
- Notification settings: Choose whether to receive quarterly emails from ORCID about new features and tips for making the most of your ORCID record. You can change this preference after registration in your account settings.
ORCID also sends notifications by email and by your ORCID inbox about items related to your account, security, and privacy, including requests from ORCID member organizations for permission to update your record, and changes made to your record by those organizations. The default setting is a weekly summary, and you can change this setting in your account settings. - Visibility settings (required): Select your default visibility setting for any information that you or trusted parties add to your ORCID record. We strongly recommend choosing Everyone or Trusted Parties as your default visibility setting as this will enable your information to be shared with the systems you interact with, allowing you to benefit from their ORCID integrations. Learn more about visibility settings.
- Terms of Use (required): You must check this box indicating that you consent to ORCID's privacy policy and terms and conditions before you can register.
- Human confirmation (required): You must confirm that you are not a robot by completing the reCAPTCHA. Both visual and audio methods are available.
After completing these fields, click the Register button at the bottom of the page.
In most cases you will be taken to your new ORCID record, but sometimes you will see a different screen or message:
- Is this you? If one or more records with an identical name already exist in our system, you will be shown a list and prompted to check that none of them are yours. You can click the ORCID iDs listed to view publicly available information and check whether the account belongs to you. If there is not enough information on the ORCID record to know if it is yours, please contact us. If you have never used ORCID before, then it is very unlikely that any of the listed individuals are you and you can click the None of these are me button to get your new ORCID iD.