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Elevating your Online Profile as a Researcher

This guide is designed to highlight the various tools and services which you can use to be more visible as a researcher in the online environment.

ORCID

ORCiD
With growing amounts of Open Access research available, your work could easily get confused with that of someone else. ORCiD is here to help! 

What is ORCiD?

(Original Researcher Contributor ID) is a unique numerical persistent identifier (PID) that aims to disambiguate researchers and their research outputs and aims to link your professional activities across a range of systems. Registering for an ORCiD and ensuring that it stays up to date has numerous benefits and is encouraged by funders, publishers, and the University to increase online visibility of researchers, and to facilitate collaboration. ORCiD is an important component of the Open Research landscape. At the end of 2020, ORCiD announced that the number of registered researchers had hit the 10 million mark. Today, there are over 11 million individuals with an ORCiD. Please see examples: 

UKRI Funding Service to replace Je-S

Je-S will be replaced by a new UKRI Funding Service at the end of 2023. From January 2024, all Research Council opportunities will be launched and managed only in the new Funding Service.  Funding opportunities will launch in the new service in increasing numbers through 2023.

For information about the new Service see Using the new UKRI Funding Service for applicants – UKRI

Information on each Research Council’s transition planning (including on responsive mode applications) is on the UKRI Simpler and Better webpages: Council transition to the new Funding Service – UKRI

Research Council calls will make it clear whether a proposal is to be submitted through Je-S or through the Funding Service. Application guidance is accessible from within the Funding Service as a proposal is written. 

The Funding Service is being developed in an iterative way, which means new functionality and features will be introduced and refined over 2023 and beyond.

 

What are the pros and cons?

 Use your ORCiD profile as your online CV and your outputs can be recorded as you publish. It can be easily integrated into databases and online systems such as the University repository, UDORA. This significantly increases your online presence and discoverability. To connect your ORCiD to UDORA, simply follow the instructions inside the box (example below). Once connected, UDORA will harvest records from your ORCiD into the repository. If the repository is updated, this will also push information out to the ORCiD registry. This is a two way process of keeping UDORA and your ORCiD up to date! Please remember to submit items which have been published in a subscription journal to UDORA first, that way you can ensure that your manuscript is made Open Access as soon as possible. 

 

  Easily display your existing outputs and successful research grants on your ORCiD profile. You can import publication records from some of the biggest literature databases using the Search and Link feature. Funders can also track your publications resulting from their funding. 
 

  If you change your name, or your institution, your ORCiD and all its content remains and same and goes with you.
 

  How your ORCiD is used is completely under your control. The settings allow you to make your profile content public or private. The full benefits of ORCiD are only available to a profile that is public.
 

  Showcase all of your research. ORCiD provides the ability to find all publications associated with a single author, including research that hasn’t been published.

  Some people, either by accident or on purpose, can end up with multiple ORCiDs - causing confusion! There have been cases where fake journal articles have been published anonymously, with authors using ORCiDs to mask their identity.

Registering for an ORCID is straightforward; simply go to orcid.org/register. Once you have an ORCiD you can use it in any system relating to scholarly activities. Don't forget to include your ORCiD on UDORA!