ORCID assigns unique IDs for authors of scientific works worldwide. As an official member of the ORCID DE Konsortium, the University of Münster supports the use of these IDs for the assignment of publications.

What is ORCID?

ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is an international non-profit organization that assigns unique IDs to authors of scientific works worldwide. ORCID is the most widely used international author identification system with currently (as of the end of 2022) more than 9.1 million active IDs, which is why many publishers and research funders already use ORCID iDs to uniquely identify scientific authors.

Example of an ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1825-0097

You can specify the ORCID iD in your publication as an iD symbol in front of a complete ORCID record URL or as a compact 16-digit ID. This can be done, for example, in a dissertation on the back of the title page, in the imprint or on the title page after the respective author's name.

Which advantages does the ORCID iD offer?

• Scientists can register with ORCID and thus receive a personal ORCID iD. Since it is unique worldwide, it can be used to clearly assign scientific work to a person.
• Users always have full control over their data and the public visibility of the respective entries.
• The ORCID iD is permanent and can continue to be used when transferring to another institution.
• In addition to publications, further data can also be stored for an ORCID iD, such as institute affiliations, research projects or different name variants.
• Many publishers, research funders and repositories recommend the specification of an ORCID iD when submitting publications or proposals, e.g. to easily identify all publications of a person or to ensure the correct calculation of bibliometric indicators (e.g. the h-index).
• Publication lists can be maintained automatically, e.g. by synchronization with a ResearcherID in Web of Science and a Scopus AuthorID or by automatic addition of new publications through Crossref  and DataCite. Last but not least, this also helps to promote transparency and visibility of research achievements.
• The software is open and is further developed by a community.

ORCID at the University of Münster

Since October 2018, the University of Münster has been a member of the ORCID Deutschland Konsortium, which is been funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft since 2016 to disseminate ORCID iD in Germany. Among other things, the project aims at providing organizational, technical and legal support for the introduction of ORCID at German universities and research institutions.

You enter your ORCID iD directly in the IT-Portal of the University of Münster. It is automatically taken over by CRIS (instructions in the CRIS manual).

If you have any questions or suggestions in connection with ORCID, please do not hesitate to contact the University and State Library or Department 6.4 at the University of Münster.