The '''ORCID''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɔːr|k|ɪ|d|audio=ORCID pronunciation - 2019-11-17 - Andy Mabbett.ogg}}; '''Open Researcher and Contributor ID''') is a nonproprietary [[alphanumeric code]] code to uniquely identify [[scientist|scientific]] and other [[Academic authorship|academic authors]] and contributors.<ref name="Nature09">Editorial (2009). "Credit where credit is due". ''Nature''. 462: 825. {{doi|10.1038/462825a}}.</ref><ref name="ORCID">[http://www.orcid.org ORCID website].</ref><ref name="Nature12">News (30 May 2012) "Scientists: your number is up: ORCID scheme will give researchers unique identifiers to improve tracking of publications", Declan Butler, "Nature". 485: 564 {{doi|10.1038/485564a}}.</ref><ref name="IS">{{cite web |url=http://blog.impactstory.org/ten-things-you-need-to-know-about-orcid-right-now/ |title=Ten things you need to know about ORCID right now |date=10 April 2014 |work=ImpactStory |accessdate=15 April 2014}}</ref><ref name="ChemistryViews.org">Interview with Alice Meadows, Director of Communications for ORCID (2015). "ORCID – Unique Author Identifier". ''ChemViews magazine''. {{doi|10.1002/chemv.201500088}}.</ref> This addresses the problem that a particular author's contributions to the [[scientific literature]] or publications in the [[humanities]] can be hard to recognize as most [[personal name]]s are not unique, they can change ([[Maiden and married names|such as with marriage]]), have cultural differences in name order, contain inconsistent use of first-name abbreviations and employ different [[writing system]]s. It provides a persistent identity for humans, similar to that created for content-related entities on digital networks by [[digital object identifier]]s (DOIs).<ref>[http://www.crossref.org/01company/orcid.html Crossref & ORCID].</ref>
The ORCID organization, ORCID Inc., offers an open and independent registry intended to be the ''de facto'' standard for contributor identification in research and [[academic publishing]]. On 16 October 2012, ORCID launched its registry services<ref name="launchORCID">{{cite web |title=ORCID Launches Registry |url=http://about.orcid.org/news/2012/10/16/orcid-launches-registry |accessdate=18 October 2012|date=16 October 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=ORCID vs ISNI; ORCID lanceert vandaag hun Author Register - Artikel - SURFspace |url=https://www.surfspace.nl/artikel/936-orcid-vs-isni-orcid-lanceert-vandaag-hun-author-register/ |accessdate=24 October 2012}}</ref> and started issuing user identifiers.<ref>{{cite web |title=Register for an ORCID iD |url=http://orcid.org/register |accessdate=18 October 2012}}</ref>
