Why ORCID is the First Step for Rural Clinicians in Research
You may have published nothing yet, or you might be slowly building a record — co-authoring a case report, contributing observational data, or picking up authorship on a multi-centre trial. It all adds up. But has anyone ever shown you how to keep track of what you’ve done — what you’ve published, how often it’s been cited, what grants you’ve received, or which articles you’ve reviewed?
Without one simple step early on, your contributions can become scattered. You might find your papers on PubMed or Google Scholar, but they’re not all in one place — and it’s not always clear they’re yours. Research databases like Scopus or Web of Science may split your publications across different name variants — Amanda Smith, Amanda R Smith, Mandy Smith — or confuse your work with someone else’s. That becomes a problem when you need to show someone what you’ve done — maybe for an academic role, a promotion, or a grant application with your RRECN colleagues.
That’s where ORCID comes in.
ORCID stands for Open Researcher and Contributor ID. It’s a free, permanent number that identifies you as a researcher — no matter where you work, what your name is, or how many hats you wear. Think of it as a Medicare number for your research life: it stays with you wherever you go and keeps your academic output in one place.
You can register at www.orcid.org in just a few minutes. Once you have your 16-digit ORCID iD, you can use it whenever you submit an article, review a paper, or apply for a grant. From then on, any research activity that includes your ORCID will stick with you.
So go to orcid.org, sign up today — even if you haven’t published anything yet — and take one small step toward claiming your place in the rural research landscape.
First published in the RRECN Newsletter (August 2025).
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