A key ORCID principle is that you are in control of the data on your ORCID record, including who you share it with. You are only required to provide very limited information about yourself when you register your ORCID iD, including your first name and your email address. You can also choose to add – or grant trusted parties permission to add – other information about you, such as your last name, title, education history, affiliations, grants, and research outputs (publications, patents, reviews, and more).
In compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), ORCID also provides the option for you to download all of your personal data in the ORCID Registry in XML format. The data is unique to you, and only you have access to this file. All of your data is included in the downloadable file, including data that is set to be visible to trusted parties or to only you.
To download all your data:
1. Sign into ORCID and access your Account Settings
2. Scroll to Account actions and click on Download your ORCID data
3. Click the Download all my data button, and a ZIP file will start downloading
The ZIP file will contain XML data for each section of your ORCID record which has data. At a minimum, it will include the person XML file.
The XML file will include all data, including data that is visible to trusted parties or only you, and it will clearly indicate the visibility of the data.
Depending on the information that has been added to your ORCID record, sections include:
- Person: Information that helps identify you, such as your name, “also known as” names, other personal identifiers, keywords, your country or region, website links, and your email address. This section is always included.
- Education: Any education affiliations on your ORCID record.
- Employment: Any employment affiliations on your ORCID record.
- Funding: Any funding items on your ORCID record.
- Work: Any works on your ORCID record.
- Peer review: Any peer review activities on your ORCID record.
Example of a person XML file generated by ORCID. XML is a machine-readable format that can be imported into other systems.