ORCID is unique in its ability to reach across disciplines, research sectors, and national boundaries and its cooperation with other identifier systems.
ECS is pleased to announce that it recently became a member of the Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) registry. ORCID is an open, non-profit, community-based effort founded by academic institutions, professional bodies, funding agencies, and publishers to create and maintain a registry of unique researcher identifiers intended to remedy the systemic name ambiguity problem seen in scholarly research. ORCID resolves the confusion brought about by name changes, the cultural differences in name order presentation, and the inconsistent use of first-name and middle-name abbreviations on published research papers.
The ORCID ID is a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes an author from every other researcher, and it follows an individual throughout his or her career. Similar to the Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) used in the ECS journals to identify individual published papers, the ORCID ID is a 16-digit number which identifies the author and which can be published in electronic editions in the form of a Web address that leads to the researcher’s individual author profile. The ORCID record is controlled by the researcher, not by the organization, and individuals can manage their record of activities and search for others in the ORCID Registry at their convenience.
ORCID IDs are free to obtain and use, and the one-time registration process has been integrated into the ECS journals submission site, ECSxPress (ExP) for convenience. Submitting authors can input their existing ORCID ID or register and secure an ID during the submission process via a built-in link to the ORCID site. Authors can also go directly to the ORCID website to obtain an ID and add it to their ExP profiles at their convenience.
Once this process has been completed, the ExP system will recognize the ORCID ID and include it in all future submissions. When accepted papers are published, ECS will display the ORCID IDs of all registered authors on the article’s abstract and full-text views within the ECS Digital Library. Moving forward we will will be looking for ways to integrate ORCID IDs into our other systems and databases, such as those for the Meeting Abstracts and ECS Transactions.
For more information about the ORCID ID registry, please visit the ORCID website, or contact ECS at publications@electrochem.org.
