ORCID

ORCID, which stands for Open Researcher and Contributor IDentifier, is a free, unique, persistent identifier (PID) for individuals to use as they engage in research, scholarship, and innovation activities. ORCID is provided to researchers free of charge to ensure that all who participate in research, scholarship, and innovation are uniquely identified and connected to their contributions across disciplines, borders, and time.

ORCID is a 16-digit-number and its associated record, or profile, that stores automatic links to all your research, and links all your research to you. 

Benefits of using ORCID are:

• Your ORCID helps you distinguish yourself from others with the same or similar names, and will follow you across any name changes, ensuring that you receive credit for your work. 
• ORCID reduces administrative burden. Many manuscript submission and grand application forms can be auto-populated when you log in with your ORCID, like NIH Biosketch and ScienCV. 
• You control the visibility of your data, and can allow trusted organization to add information to your record. 

ORCID is completely free for you to use.