What Information Can I Add to My ORCID Record?

Updated

An ORCID record can hold six main categories of information: personal details, education and qualifications, employment, funding, works (publications and other outputs), and peer review activity. You can add each item manually, import it from an external system, or let a trusted organization write it on your behalf — and you control the visibility of every item individually.

The core sections of an ORCID record

ORCID organizes record content into a fixed set of sections. Here is what each one is for:

Section What goes in it
Personal information Name variants, other names, biography, keywords, websites, and email addresses
Education and qualifications Degrees, institutional affiliations, and dates of study
Employment Positions, organizations, and date ranges
Funding Grants, contracts, and other awards, with funder and grant number
Works Publications, datasets, software, conference papers, and other research outputs
Peer review Review activity, including reviews performed for journals and conferences

Each section is a list, so you can add multiple entries and keep historical affiliations rather than overwriting old ones.

How items get into your record

There are three routes, and they can be mixed freely:

  • Manual entry. You type the details into the record yourself. Useful for older positions, unpublished outputs, or anything no system will push for you.
  • Import from another system. You can search external sources (for example, publication databases) and pull matching items into your record, then confirm them.
  • Automatic updates from trusted organizations. When you grant an organization permission, it can add or update items directly — for example, a publisher depositing a new article, or an institution asserting your employment.

The practical difference matters: manually added items are yours to edit, while items written by a trusted organization are maintained by that organization and may not be editable by you in the same way. If something looks wrong in an auto-added item, the fix usually starts with the organization that wrote it.

Visibility: who sees each item

Every item has its own visibility setting, so you do not have to make an all-or-nothing choice:

  • Public — visible to anyone viewing your record.
  • Trusted parties — visible only to organizations you have authorized.
  • Only me — private to you.

A common pattern is to keep employment and works public while restricting email addresses or an in-progress affiliation. Changing visibility later does not delete the item; it only changes who can see it.

Keeping the record accurate

A record stays useful when it reflects your current situation. A few habits help:

  1. Add a new entry instead of editing an old one when your role changes, so the history stays intact.
  2. Check auto-added items after a new publication or a change of institution, since these arrive without your direct action.
  3. Review your visibility settings when you start sharing your iD more widely, for example on a manuscript or a grant application.
  4. Use your iD consistently across systems so that imports and assertions land in the right record.

If you are deciding what to include, the test is simple: anything that helps someone identify your work and affiliations belongs there, and anything you would rather not disclose can be added with restricted visibility or left out entirely.