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Researcher e-Visibility: ORCiD

This guide assists researchers with creating and maintaining an online presence in different ways e.g. creating researcher identifiers i.e.ORCID and by using Social Media tools.

ORCID@Wits

ORCID stands for Open Researcher and Contributor ID. It is a sixteen-digit permanent unique identifier used to link researchers to their academic outputs/publications. It aims to solve common issues such as:

  • Not getting credit for your research because your name is common or because you have published using a different version of your name
  • Struggling to find a central place to keep track of all your research outputs 
  • Having to spend time entering the same information continuously in publisher and grant submission systems

Registering A New ORCID Profile

Linking your ORCID with other identifiers:

Scopus AuthorID: linking your Scopus ID to your ORCID profile

Web of Science : linking your web of science ID to your ORCID profile 

Google Scholar : importing publications from Google Scholar into ORCID profile

Auto-Updating Records in ORCID

  • Researchers: You need to do two things: (1) use your ORCID iD when submitting a paper or dataset, and (2) authorize Crossref and DataCite to update your ORCID record. In keeping with our commitment to ensuring that researchers maintain full control of their ORCID record, you may revoke this permission at any time, and may also choose privacy settings for the information posted on your record.
  • Publishers and data centers: These organizations also have two things to do: (1) collect ORCID identifiers during the submission workflow, using a process that involves authentication (not a type-in field!), and (2) embed the iD in the published paper and include the iD when submitting information to Crossref or DataCite.  
  • Crossref and DataCite: Upon receipt of data from a publisher or data center with a valid identifier, Crossref or DataCite can automatically push that information to the researcher’s ORCID record.  

Source: (HAAK, L:2015)

Sharing your research output on WIReDSpace

WIReDSpace is the Witwatersrand open access Institutional Repository (IR). Documents such as published journal articles, conference papers and proceedings, reports, theses, and dissertations are collected and uploaded on the IR. Wits staff members can link their ORCID to their outputs on the repository.

Support Service

For further information and assistance in creating an ORCID profile please contact your Faculty librarian or the research office.