Overview
The Professional activities section of your ORCID record is for information about your membership affiliation with an organization, your activities in service of an organization, invited positions and distinctions.
You can add information about those activities to your ORCID record manually, and we also strongly encourage you to grant trusted organizations and trusted individuals permission to add and edit information about your affiliation with them.
Introduction
Membership, Service, Invited positions, and Distinctions are types of affiliations on the ORCID record. They describe your membership in an organization; your donation of time or other resources in the service of an organization; formal relationships – outside of employment – between a person and an organization, such as a serving as an honorary researcher, a fellow, or being distinguished with an award or honorary degree.
Each affiliation includes the organization’s name and location, the date the affiliation started, and who added the information to your record: you, or a trusted organization.
We strongly encourage you to allow trusted organizations to add and update your employment affiliations with them on your ORCID record. They will then appear as the source of the information, enabling you and others to be confident that it is authoritative and trustworthy. As ORCID members, trusted organizations are also required to ensure that the information they add is in a format that can be easily shared with other organizations, saving you time when completing forms.
Not sure what affiliation type is right for you? Contact us -- we’re happy to provide more information!
Membership
Choose Membership when you are a member of a society or association (regardless of whether you pay for your membership). This subtype does not include honorary memberships and fellowships, which should be listed under Invited positions and Distinctions.
Examples of membership include:
- Member of an association or society
- Member of a trade or industry body
Service
Choose Service for significant donations of your time, money, or other resources to an organization or community. This can also include voluntary work.
Examples of service include:
- Volunteer society officer
- Elected board position
- Standards body member
- Expert panel member
- Editorial board member
- Review editor
- Study group member
- Conference organizer
- Conference panel chair
- Committee work
- Project work
- Extension work
Invited position
Choose Invited position for an invited non-employment affiliation. These include formal acknowledgment of your academic effort through honorary titles and/or invited positions that require no special service. They may be paid or unpaid, and you may or may not be based at a different organization.
Examples of invited positions include:
- Honorary fellow
- Fellow member
- Guest researcher
- Emeritus professor
- Visiting lecturer
Distinction
Choose Distinction when you have received honorary and other awards, distinctions, and prizes from an organization in recognition of your academic or other achievements.
Examples of distinctions include:
- Trophies
- Cash prizes
- Non-cash prizes
- Medals
- Honorary degrees
- Honorary member
Add and edit membership, service, invited position or distinction affiliation information manually
To add a new membership, service, invited position or distinction affiliation, sign into your ORCID record, scroll to the Professional activities section and click on +Add.
Select then the desired option, Add membership, Add service, Add Invited Position or Add Distinction on the dropdown menu.
Fields in a membership, service, invited position or distinction affiliation
The fields in a membership affiliation are separated in three sections:
Organization
- Organization (required): The organization you are or were affiliated with
Note: While some organization names include department level listings, we strongly recommend that you pick the highest level of the organization and provide departmental information in the department field. - City (required): City where the organization is located. This field is usually automatically filled in when you select an organization
- Region, State or County: The state/region of the organization
- Country or location (required): The country or territory of the organization. This field is usually automatically filled in when you select an organization
Membership Details
- Department: The subsection, field, or department related to the affiliation. For a membership affiliation, this could be the chapter or section of your association that you belong to (if applicable)
- Membership Type: The type of membership, e.g. Student member. Be sure to include a descriptive title!
- Start date: The start date of your relationship with the organization. For example, the date that you started your term as a board member. It is strongly encouraged to add at least a year to your membership or service affiliation to increase veracity.
- End date: The end date of your relationship with the organization. For example, the date that your society membership lapsed. If you are still involved with the organization, you do not need to supply an end date.
- Link: A website URL related to your membership in the organization.
Visibility
You can learn more about each type of visibility setting on Visibility settings.
The fields in a service affiliation are also separated in three sections:
Organization
- Organization (required): The organization you are or were affiliated with
Note: While some organization names include department level listings, we strongly recommend that you pick the highest level of the organization and provide departmental information in the department field. - City (required): City where the organization is located. This field is usually automatically filled in when you select an organization
- Region, State or County: The state/region of the organization
- Country or location (required): The country or territory of the organization. This field is usually automatically filled in when you select an organization
Service details
- Department: The subsection, field, or department related to the affiliation. For a service affiliation, this could be a panel, project, working group, journal, or other
- Role/title: The title of the role or description of the service, e.g. Facilitator, Review Editor. Be sure to include a descriptive title!
- Start date: The start date of your relationship with the organization. For example, the date that you started your term as a board member. It is strongly encouraged to add at least a year to your service affiliation to increase veracity
- End date: The end date of your relationship with the organization, for example, when you rotated off a Board or panel. If you are still involved with the organization, you do not need to supply an end date
- Link: A website URL related to your service to the organization
Visibility
You can learn more about each type of visibility setting on Visibility settings.
The fields in a invited position affiliation are separated in three sections:
Organization
- Organization (required): The organization you are or were affiliated with
Note: While some organization names include department level listings, we strongly recommend that you pick the highest level of the organization and provide departmental information in the department field. - City (required): City where the organization is located. This field is usually automatically filled in when you select an organization
- Region, State or County: The state/region of the organization
- Country or location (required): The country or territory of the organization. This field is usually automatically filled in when you select an organization
Invited Position details
- Department: The subsection, field, or department related to the affiliation. For an invited position, this could be the specific department, e.g. Music Theory
- Role/title: The name of the position, e.g. Honorary Visiting Scholar. Be sure to include a descriptive title!
- Start date: The start date of your relationship with the organization. For example, the date that you started a visiting lectureship, or the date you were awarded an honorary degree.It is strongly encouraged to add at least a year to your invited position to increase veracity
- End date: The end date of your relationship with the organization. For example, the date that you ended a visiting lectureship. If you are still affiliated with the organization, you do not need to provide an end date
- Link: A website URL related to your invited position with the organization
Visibility
You can learn more about each type of visibility setting on Visibility settings.
The fields in a distinction affiliation are separated in three sections:
Organization
- Organization (required): The organization you are or were affiliated with
Note: While some organization names include department level listings, we strongly recommend that you pick the highest level of the organization and provide departmental information in the department field. - City (required): City where the organization is located. This field is usually automatically filled in when you select an organization
- Region, State or County: The state/region of the organization
- Country or location (required): The country or territory of the organization. This field is usually automatically filled in when you select an organization
Distinction details
- Department: The subsection, field, or department related to the affiliation.
- Distinction/award: Be sure to include a descriptive title!
- Distinction: The awarded prize or distinction name, e.g. Award for Scholarly Distinction
- Distinction: The awarded prize or distinction name, e.g. Award for Scholarly Distinction
- Date of distinction/award: For example, the date you were awarded an honorary degree. It is strongly encouraged to add at least a year to your distinction to increase veracity
Link: A website URL related to the distinction you were awarded or the organization that awarded it
Visibility
You can learn more about each type of visibility setting on Visibility settings.
Delete a membership, service, invited position or distinction affiliation
You can delete any affiliation on your ORCID record by signing into your personal ORCID record and selecting the delete icon (trash bin) on the lower right side of the affiliation.
We do not recommend deleting affiliations added by trusted organization. Having affiliations added by trusted organizations allow you to share accurate and authoritative information with other institutions and systems. If the affiliation is added incorrect or out of date, please let the trusted organisation know so that they can fix it.