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.
      
      
• 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.
  

Contents

• Just getting started?
• Verify your email address
• Add your current affiliation
• Add other versions of your name
• Add additional email addresses
• Link your works
• Want to do more?

Just getting started?

If you don't yet have an ORCID iD, register now — it's free and only takes 30 seconds.

Not sure why you need an ORCID iD? Learn more about what ORCID is and why having an ORCID iD is useful:

• Your ORCID iD: your digital name identifier
• What is my ORCID iD and how should I use it?
• Does an ORCID iD assure my identity?
• How is ORCID different from other researcher identifiers?

By adding just a few pieces of information to your ORCID record, you make it possible to distinguish your record and ensure your access to it.  The first step is to verify your email address.

Verify your email address

We request that you verify your email address to access key features of your ORCID record, such as adding items manually. To verify, click the verification link in your welcome email.

Verification is important to ORCID because it ensures that you have access to your record and allows us to contact you in the rare event that we need to send an urgent service announcement or other important notification.

Learn more about verifying your email address.

Add your current affiliation

Adding your education or employment affiliation helps distinguish you from other researchers who share your name but are affiliated with other institutions. You can also specify your title and department. 

Learn more about adding education and employment information to your ORCID record.

Add other versions of your name

Adding additional names you are known by helps identify you. Clicking on the pencil icon next to your name lets you edit the name you registered with as well as enter a published name — the name that you are most commonly known by, and the name that will be included at the top of your ORCID record.

You can also click on the pencil icon next to also known as to enter other names you have used. This can include your middle name(s), married names, initials, and names in different languages or scripts.

Learn more about editing your name and adding other names you are known by to your ORCID record.

Add additional email addresses

Ensure that you never lose access to your ORCID record by registering all of your email addresses on your account. Go to your record page and click on the pencil icon on the Emails box on the left side of the page. Click then on Add another email address and enter any other email address that you actively use. Follow that same process to add more than one backup email address to your account.

Learn more about adding additional email addresses to your ORCID record.

Link your works

Easily import your publications and other research output to your ORCID record. Under the Works header, click add works, then Search & Link and select a tool to import your works automatically, or add them by hand. You'll be prompted to grant access to your ORCID record then taken to the member's website to select the works to add to your ORCID record.

If you're looking to import a large number of works at once, we suggest using the Scopus or Europe PubMed Central wizards.

Learn more about adding works to your ORCID record.

Want to do more?

• Add personal information and links to personal websites
• Add funding information
• Link to other systems to add other identifiers such as Scopus Author ID, ResearcherID, or ISNI

If you don’t remember the email address you used to register, you can still access your ORCID record through one the following options:

1. If you know your ORCID iD and password, you can sign in at https://orcid.org/signin  using your 16-digit ORCID iD as the username.

2. If you don’t remember your ORCID password, please try logging in by testing all passwords you can remember, especially passwords that you commonly use. If that doesn’t work, try resetting your password using the professional and personal email addresses you have access to. If none of your current email addresses are associated with an ORCID account, then please contact us.

Once you’re logged in

Once you’re logged into your record page, you can check which email is associated with your account on the Emails section on the left side of the page.

If you’d like to change the email address(es) associated with your account, please see Managing the Emails Associated with Your Account for step-by-step instructions.

I’m still having problems

In many cases, it’s quicker for you to read our help articles, follow the instructions and resolve the problem yourself. However, if you need assistance, you can contact us and we’ll be happy to help.

There are two ways you can recover your ORCID iD:

1. Sign into your ORCID record page and your 16-digit ORCID iD will be shown below your name in the top left-hand corner of the page:

2. Through our recovery page:

a. Go to https://orcid.org/reset-password

b. Select ORCID iD

c. Enter the email address associated with your ORCID iD

d. Click on Recover account details

e. We will send you an email with the subject line [ORCID] Your ORCID iD

If the email says that we could not find an ORCID iD associated with the email address, then retry the process above with your other current email addresses (both personal and professional) to recover the ORCID iD. If you don’t find the email in your inbox, check your spam/junk mail folder.

If none of your current email addresses are registered and you are not sure whether you have a 16-digit ORCID iD, then try registering for a new ORCID iD at https://orcid.org/register. Our system will warn you if there is already an existing ORCID iD with your name which could possibly be yours.

Don’t have access to your associated email address and can’t remember your password?

Please see I have lost access to my email address and can’t sign in for next steps.

I’m still having problems

In many cases, it’s quicker for you to read our help articles, follow the instructions and resolve the problem yourself. However, if you need assistance, you can contact us and we’ll be happy to help.

You can reset your ORCID password by following these steps:

1. Go to the password reset page at https://orcid.org/reset-password or click on Forgot your password or ORCID iD? on the ORCID sign in page

2. Select Password

3. Enter any of the email addresses associated with your ORCID account. You can try multiple email addresses if you are not sure which one(s) you registered with

4. Click on Recover account details

5. We will send you an email with a password reset link which is valid for 4 hours. Follow the steps in the email to reset your password.

If you do not receive the password reset email in your inbox within 10 minutes, check your spam/junk mail folder for a message from DoNotReply@notify.orcid.org.

If the email says that your email address is not associated with an ORCID iD, then try resetting your password using your other email addresses (both personal and professional).

If after 10 minutes you can’t find the password reset email in your inbox or spam/junk folder or if none of your email addresses are associated with an ORCID account, then please contact us. 

I’m still having problems

In many cases, it’s quicker for you to read our help articles, follow the instructions and resolve the problem yourself. However, if you need assistance, you can contact us and we’ll be happy to help.

If you no longer have access to the email address associated with your ORCID record, you can still access your account.

Please do NOT create a new record; instead follow the suggestions below to regain access to your existing ORCID record.

If you know the associated email address or your ORCID iD

Please try logging in by testing all passwords you can remember. You can use either the associated email address or the ORCID iD as the username. In many cases, users are able to log in by testing passwords they commonly use.

If you have already tried to log in using all passwords you can remember and were unable to do so, then please contact us so we can help you regain access to your account.

You’ll need to provide the following information:

-   A current institutional or employer email address

-   ORCID iD

-   The email address(es) associated with your ORCID iD

If you don’t have all that information, we can still help you, but keep in mind that the access recovery process will take longer.

If you don’t know the associated email address or your ORCID iD

Please use the search bar at orcid.org to look up your name. If you find any ORCID records that you believe might be yours, please use the ORCID iD to try to log in. If you’re unable to do so, then contact us, making sure to provide the ORCID iD.

If there are no ORCID records with your name or if you can’t find one that you believe might be yours, that means that you don’t have an ORCID iD yet. In this case, you can register for an ORCID iD at orcid.org/register.

I’m still having problems

In many cases, it’s quicker for you to read our help articles, follow the instructions and resolve the problem yourself. However, if you need assistance, you can contact us and we’ll be happy to help.

The ORCID Registry is designed to discourage more than one account for an individual. We allow only one ORCID iD per email address, and we check for duplicates based on name when you register.  It works like this:

• If you attempt to register for a new ORCID iD with an email address that is already associated with an ORCID iD, you will be prompted to sign into the existing record.
• If your name already exists in our system, you will see a list of ORCID records with the same name as you. If you previously registered with ORCID,  you should click on that record to sign in, rather than creating a new account.
• If you have not used ORCID before, then none of the listed individuals are you, and you can click None of these are me - continue to registration.

Can I delete my duplicate ORCID iD?

Despite our controls in place, some users inadvertently register more than one ORCID iD.

Because ORCID identifiers are designed to be persistent, obsolete iDs will be deprecated, not completely deleted. Data on the deprecated account will be deleted, and the iD will point to the primary record, both in the user interface and the API. 

See Removing your additional or duplicate ORCID iD

We ask all users to remove any duplicate ORCID iDs in order to avoid future confusion and ambiguity.

Please note that this action will delete all information and permissions from the duplicate record, they cannot be transferred; only the email address(es) associated with it will be transferred to your primary record. Once a duplicate record has been removed, it cannot be reinstated.

Because ORCID identifiers are designed to be persistent, obsolete iDs will be deprecated, not completely deleted. Data on the deprecated account will be deleted, and the iD will point to your primary record, both in the user interface and the API. An example can be seen at https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6151-2200.

To remove a duplicate ORCID iD, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the ORCID record you want to keep, and go to your Account Settings: https://orcid.org/account

2. Scroll down to Account actions and click on Remove a duplicate record

3. Enter the sign-in details (email address or ORCID iD and password) for the record you want to deprecate then click Remove duplicate record.

If you have forgotten the login details for your duplicate record, you can reset your password or contact us for help.

4. Click Remove duplicate record, read the instructions, and confirm that you wish to remove the record

ORCID relies on individuals to report and remove duplicate records. If we receive a report from the community about a potential duplicate record or incorrect data which may need to be corrected, we will follow our dispute procedures to address the situation.

I’m still having problems

In many cases, it’s quicker for you to read our help articles, follow the instructions and resolve the problem yourself. However, if you need assistance, you can contact us and we’ll be happy to help.