Researcher identifiers play an important role in building digital identity. They enable researchers to be identified unambiguously (avoiding homonymy) and at the same time to communicate about their activities by centralizing their output.
There are several researcher identifiers: identifiers created by the researcher themselves (e.g., ORCID, IdHAL) and identifiers assigned automatically when one of the researcher's publications is listed in a library catalog (e.g., IdRef) or identifiers linked to a database (e.g., ScopusId).
All of these identifiers are useful. In order to compile all of their scientific output in the most comprehensive way possible, researchers will need to create links between their various identifiers.
To learn more about identifiers: https://coop-ist.cirad.fr/etre-auteur/utiliser-un-identifiant-chercheur/1-qu-est-ce-qu-un-identifiant-chercheur
The ORCID identifier is a code that uniquely identifies researchers who publish. It resolves issues such as homonymy, name changes, and publishers' spelling rules (full first name, initial only, etc.). It is assigned by ORCID, an international non-profit organization.
This identifier has become essential. You will use it to:
– Be identified permanently: your ORCID ID follows you throughout your career, regardless of where you work, who funds you, or whether your name changes or appears in different forms.
– Communicate your identity: registering with ORCID allows you to generate an ORCID profile that you can fill in with various information (educational background, affiliated institutions, funded projects, personal websites, etc.).
– Communicate about your activities: in your ORCID account, you will be able to list all your publications.
– respond to a call for proposals or a grant (some funding agencies ask applicants to enter their ORCID ID in the application form)
– submit an article (many scientific publishers request the ORCID identifier at the time of submission)
Create your ORCID: https://orcid.org/
ORCID identifier: what is it? (video)
The IdHAL is a unique identifier managed in HAL. It allows a user known as an author in HAL to group together all their publications, regardless of the different forms in which their name may have been entered (e.g., Marie Dupont, M. Dupont, Marie Dupont-Martin, etc.) and to choose one as the default.
Creating an IdHal account also allows you to generate a HAL CV, i.e., a personal page with a stable and permanent URL containing a list of your publications.
Your researcher page created in HAL can be promoted on your laboratory's website, in your email signature, on your social media profiles, etc.
To help you create your IdHal and HAL CV, the CCSD team offers a tutorial and one-hour remote training sessions ( registration required).
If you have an ORCID, you can link it to your IdHal. This will allow you to transfer your HAL deposits to your ORCID profile. " Complete your ORCID file with your HAL deposits."
IdRef (Identifiers and Repositories for Higher Education and Research) is an authority repository for French higher education developed by ABES (Agence des Bibliothèques de l’Enseignement Supérieur).
The IdRef author identifier is created to avoid problems of homonymy and name changes in ABES catalogs, and to facilitate the link between a contributor and their publications.
For researchers, an IdRef identifier is automatically assigned as soon as their thesis is defended and published on Theses.fr (it is therefore created at the start of their scientific career) or as soon as they are identified as an author in one of the Higher Education catalogs.
To find out your IdRef, search for your name on the website www.idref.fr.