ORCID Identifiers

Linked Open Exhibition

Quick guide to ORCID identifiers and integration with Quarto projects
Published

June 4, 2026 00:00

What is ORCID?

ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a free, unique, persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from other researchers. It’s a 16-digit identifier in the format: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX

Example: 0000-0002-1234-5678

Why Use ORCID?

  • Disambiguation: Ensures your work is attributed to you (especially important if you have a common name)
  • Persistence: Your ORCID follows you throughout your career
  • Interoperability: ORCID is recognized globally by publishers, funders, and institutions
  • Profile Control: You control your ORCID profile and can add your publications, funding, affiliations, etc.

How to Get an ORCID

  1. Visit: orcid.org
  2. Click: “Sign in” → “Register for an ORCID iD”
  3. Provide:
    • Given name and family name
    • Email address
    • Password
    • Affiliation (optional but recommended)
  4. Verify: Confirm your email address
  5. Complete: Your 16-digit ORCID will be generated immediately

Recommendation: Make your ORCID profile public so it’s discoverable!

Adding ORCID to Quarto Projects

Method 1: Author Metadata in YAML Frontmatter

In your .qmd file, add ORCID to the author metadata:

---
title: "My Publication"
author:
  - name: Jane Researcher
    orcid: 0000-0002-1234-5678
    affiliation: "University of Example"
---

Method 2: In _quarto.yml (Project Level)

For organization-wide ORCID references:

project:
  type: website
  title: "My Project"

metadata:
  author:
    - name: Jane Researcher
      orcid: 0000-0002-1234-5678

Citation File Format (CFF) with ORCID

A CITATION.cff file (at repository root) standardizes how to cite your project and includes contributor metadata with ORCID.

Example CITATION.cff:

cff-version: 1.2.0
title: "Linked Open Exhibition"
abstract: "A standardized data model framework for exhibitions aligned with CIDOC CRM"
authors:
  - family-names: "Researcher"
    given-names: "Jane"
    orcid: "https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1234-5678"
    affiliation: "NFDI4Culture"
    email: "jane@example.edu"
  
  - family-names: "Colleague"
    given-names: "John"
    orcid: "https://orcid.org/0000-0003-9876-5432"
    affiliation: "Museum Institute"

contributors:
  - family-names: "Copilot"
    given-names: "GitHub"
    type: "software"
    email: "ai@github.com"

version: 1.0.0
date-released: 2026-06-02
repository-code: "https://github.com/NFDI4Culture/linked-open-exhibition"
url: "https://nfdi4culture.github.io/linked-open-exhibition/"
keywords:
  - "exhibitions"
  - "linked-open-data"
  - "cidoc-crm"
  - "wikidata"
license: "CC-BY-SA-4.0"
references:
  - type: "standard"
    title: "CIDOC CRM"
    version: "7.1.3"
    url: "https://cidoc-crm.org/"

Benefits of CFF:

✅ GitHub automatically displays citation instructions
✅ Zenodo and other platforms recognize it for DOI generation
✅ Structured format for all contributor metadata
✅ ORCID links are clickable and verified
✅ Version tracking for reproducibility

GitHub Integration

  1. Create CITATION.cff in your repository root
  2. Commit and push to GitHub
  3. View: GitHub will display “Cite this repository” in the sidebar
  4. Copy: Users can generate citations in BibTeX, APA, etc.

Linking to Your ORCID Profile:

Use the full ORCID URL in your CFF:

orcid: "https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1234-5678"

This ensures the link is persistent and clickable.

Best Practices

  1. Always use HTTPS URLs: https://orcid.org/XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
  2. Keep your ORCID profile public for discoverability
  3. Link your ORCID to your institutional email for auto-discovery
  4. Update your ORCID profile with recent publications and contributions
  5. Use consistent author name formatting across all publications

Contact

For questions about ORCID implementation in this project, consult the project repository or the ORCID support site.