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Scholarly Communication

ORCID requirement for NIH – 2nd deadline fast approaching

The National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control, and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality have implemented the 1st phase of the new requirement for ORCID iDs for researchers supported by new training (T), fellowship (F), education, or career development (K) awards in fiscal year (FY) 2020. The requirement for ORCID identifiers was incorporated into the appointment process for trainees, scholars, and participants supported by institutional research training, career development, and research education awards that require new appointments through the xTrain system in October 2019At the time of appointment, the xTrain system will check whether appointees have ORCID iDs and appointments will be not be accepted for agency review unless an ORCID iD is linked to the individual’s eRA Commons Personal Profile.  

An ORCID iD is a single persistent numeric identifier that is unique to you. Researcher names are neither unique nor static. Many researchers may have the same name, and your name may change over time with life events. Using ORCID connects you with a trusted, verifiable record of your education and employment affiliation, grant funding, research, and work that you have contributed such as presentations or publications. This verification along with its data transfer capacity i.e. ORCID’s ability to move information through connected information systems designated by the user (via APIs or  Search & Link functions), makes ORCID a natural partner for integration into the eRA Commons PPF. 

Beginning with receipt dates on or after January 25, 2020, the requirement for ORCID identifiers will be enforced at the time of application for new individual fellowship and career development awards. The requirement does not apply to fellowship and mentored career development non-competing renewals, or to individuals supported via administrative supplements to enhance diversity.

Researchers must create an ORCID iD (Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier) and associate it with their eRA Commons Personal Profile. The eRA Commons is an online interface where grant applicants, grantees and federal staff at NIH and grantor agencies can access and share administrative information relating to research grants. The Personal Profile (PPF) in eRA Commons is the central repository of information on all registered users. It is designed so that individual eRA system users can hold and maintain ownership over the accuracy of their own profile information, and provides a single profile per person, regardless of the various roles they may hold throughout their relationship with the agency (e.g. trainee, graduate student, principal investigator, etc.), assuring data accuracy and integrity. Learn how to create and link your ORCID iD to the eRA Commons here.

At Indiana University, you can connect your ORCID iD with Digital Measures for annual reporting. 

You can also link your ORCID iD to other professional accounts such as PubMed, SciENcv, Web of Science, and ScholarOne.   Learn more about how to register for and use ORCID in our guide – ORCID@IU

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