If you need to find an ORCID iD — your own, a colleague's, or that of a researcher applying to your institution — this short guide covers the practical options. ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is the persistent, universal researcher identifier used across publishers, funders, and institutional systems. Every researcher should have one; many do; finding the right one for a specific person is straightforward once you know where to look.
How to find your own ORCID iD
If you have registered before but cannot remember the number, sign in at orcid.org using the email you registered with. Your ORCID iD appears in your profile as a 16-digit number formatted with hyphens (for example, 0000-0001-2345-6789) and as a full URL such as https://orcid.org/0000-0001-2345-6789. If you do not have an account yet, registration is free and takes about a minute — you only need an email and your name.
How to look up someone else's ORCID iD
The simplest approach is the public ORCID registry search. Visit orcid.org, click "Search", and search by name. For common names, adding the affiliation (institution) narrows the results dramatically. The search returns matching public ORCID records with the iD, current employment, and (where the researcher has chosen to make them public) their publications, funding, and other identifiers.
If you have a specific paper, the ORCID iD often appears on the article page or in the publisher's author metadata. Many journals now display the iD next to each contributing author.
How to search for an ORCID iD via Scopus or other systems
If your institution has access to Scopus, an author's Scopus profile typically links to their ORCID iD if the two have been associated. The same is true of other publisher and database platforms — Crossref publication metadata, for example, frequently carries an author's ORCID iD where the author supplied it at submission. Our companion article on Scopus Author ID and ORCID explains how the two identifiers relate.
How a RIMS handles ORCID lookup automatically
For research offices managing hundreds or thousands of researchers, manual ORCID lookup is not viable. A RIMS ingests publication and researcher metadata from multiple global sources and reconciles ORCID iDs against the institutional researcher record automatically. The researcher profile inside the RIMS surfaces the ORCID iD, the publications associated with it, and any gaps that need researcher action. This is the foundation of institutional ORCID adoption.
What to do if a researcher does not have an ORCID iD
Encourage registration. It takes about a minute, is free, and is increasingly required by funders and publishers. Once registered, the researcher should link their existing publications by importing from Scopus, Crossref, or other sources via the ORCID interface. From that point on, every new publication that asks for ORCID at submission will be linked automatically. Institutional ORCID adoption strategies typically include a researcher-facing onboarding flow that walks each researcher through this.
Common pitfalls
- Multiple registrations. A researcher may have inadvertently registered more than once. ORCID provides a process to merge duplicate accounts.
- Wrong iD on a profile. A typo or copy-paste error in an institutional record is more common than you would expect. Verify against the canonical orcid.org page.
- Private records. Researchers control the visibility of their ORCID data. If a record appears empty, the owner may have chosen to keep it private — they have not necessarily failed to maintain it.
Frequently asked questions
Is searching ORCID free? Yes. The public search and the registry itself are free.
Can I search ORCID by affiliation? Yes. The advanced search supports affiliation filters; results are limited to what each researcher has chosen to make public.
How does ORCID relate to Scopus Author ID? They are complementary. ORCID is researcher-owned and cross-publisher; Scopus Author ID is database-computed. Both should be linked for a complete researcher record — see our companion article.
Where to start at institutional scale
Manual lookup works for one researcher. For an institution, the practical answer is automation. Discover RIMS reconciles ORCID iDs against every researcher's record across Scopus, OpenAlex, ORCID, Crossref, and Scimago — so every researcher profile carries the correct iD without anyone having to look it up by hand.