An ORCiD ID is an important tool for any African researcher. We talked in a previous article about an ORCiD and some of its benefits. But how exactly can you set up an ORCiD?
Luckily, the process is simple, straightforward, and free in just a few simple steps.
- Register for an ORCiD: Visit the ORCiD registration page and fill out the form. It takes about two minutes. You can register through your institutional or personal email address. I used my personal email address to avoid losing access to my ORCiD address after leaving the University.
- Verify your email address: After you register, look in your email inbox asking you to verify your email address. Check your spam folder if you don’t see it in your inbox.
- Once registered, you have the option of adding information in the ORCiD including:
- Employment details
- Education and qualifications
- Professional activities (e.g. memberships to professional bodies, awards or prizes)
- Funding
- Works – these are your research articles. These can be added manually by the researcher or can be updated automatically through Crossref. You will need to give permission to Crossref to update your ORCiD.

4. Privacy settings: For all of the information you add, you can set your privacy settings to Everyone, Trusted Parties or Only Me. This allows you to control who can see your information. If you set it to Everyone, anyone who opens the link to your ORCiD can see the information. Trusted parties include publishers who need to access your ORCiD to when you submit a manuscript to them.

5. Remember to add other versions of your name to help identify you (and clear up confusion). You can also add additional email addresses to ensure that you never lose access to your ORCiD record. For example, if you used your institutional email address to log in, you can add your personal email address here.
Remember to save your log in credentials securely. You will be able to log in any time to update or add information.
