ORCID is a free tool that allows you to gather together the outputs of your research under one unique identifier. It will give you the ability to make sure that the articles, data sets, etc. that you published are the ones attributed you, and are linked together.
“ORCID aims to solve the name ambiguity problem in research and scholarly communications by creating a central registry of unique identifiers for individual researchers and an open and transparent linking mechanism between ORCID and other current researcher ID schemes. These identifiers, and the relationships among them, can be linked to the researcher’s output to enhance the scientific discovery process and to improve the efficiency of research funding and collaboration within the research community.” http://about.orcid.org/about/what-is-orcid/mission
Currently, ORCID only supports published works, but in the future it will expand to include grant and patent information, as well as a list of institutional affiliations.
Visit the ORCID website for more information and to register for an ID.
