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ORCID in Arts & Humanities

Increasingly, arts and humanities scholars are assigning DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) to their works. Like ISBNs (International Standard Book Numbers) are unique identifiers assigned to published books, DOIs are unique identifiers for digital objects, which could include digitally published articles, essays, books, digital media objects, and pieces of art. In the same way that works should have a persistent identifier, so too should the creators of those works.

ORCID is a registry of unique identifiers for researchers and scholars: it provides registered users with a way to distinguish themselves from others and with a way to link and share their research objects.

The use of ORCID by humanities and social science researchers has been increasing in recent years. According to 2017 survey of ORCID users, 50% of ORCID users in the arts and humanities registered because it was required by a funder, their institution, or a publisher.

This table, from a 2017 report on the use of ORCID iDs, shows a breakdown of why people in the fields of arts/humanities, business/management, medical sciences/allied health, and physical sciences registered for ORCID iDs. Fifty percent of the arts/humanities ORCID iD users registered because it was required; 19.6% registered because it was required by their funder; 13% registered because it was required by the institution that they are affiliated with; 20.7% registered because it was required by a publisher.
From: Meadows, Alice; Armstrong, David; Laurel, Haak; Wilkinson, Laura J. (2017): ORCID 2017 Community Survey Report. https://doi.org/10.23640/07243.5525476

Humanities publications that require authors to have an ORCID iD for submission include:

  • Socrates Journal,
  • Journal of Royal Didactics, and
  • publications from Royallite Publishers.

Academic publisher Brill has been an ORCID member since 2017. Many of Brill’s publications are focused on the arts, humanities, and social sciences, and they now publish 16 electronic-only titles and 11 fully open-access titles

Getting Started with ORCID

Create an ORCID iD

Manage and use an ORCID iD

Get help with ORCID

Integrating ORCID with Other Arts and Humanities Systems

With an ORCID iD, authors can connect their unique information record with other digital identifier systems for research such as those for funding, publication, and impact.

Integration with MLA BibLink

  • Search the MLA International Bibliography for works, including those published under variant names
  • Add them to your ORCID profile with one click
  • Remove works from your ORCID profile at any time

Integration with Crossref

Crossref is an organization that creates tools and services to connect information and give context about researchers and their works, making research outputs easier to find, cite, link, and assess. They have created two tools that integrate with ORCID iDs: Metadata Search Complete and Auto-Update

  • Metadata Search Complete
    • Crossref registry of metadata and DOIs has over 85 million entries for research objects and products. Search by author, title, DOI, or ORCID iD
    • Log in with ORCID to connect items with your ORCID record
  • Auto-Update
    • If you include your ORCID iD when you submit a work for publication, Crossref publisher members pass that through along with other metadata about the work. Users can authorize Crossref to automatically update your record when the content is registered and has a DOI