The two-tier REST application programming interface (Public API and Member API) operated by ORCID that allows systems to read public ORCID record data and, with researcher authorisation, to read restricted data or write trusted-party assertions to records.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 10 Jul 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A publisher requesting /read-limited scope at submission so the manuscript system can pre-fill the corresponding author's affiliations from their ORCID record.
Is an instance
A funder POSTing a /funding item to a successful applicant's ORCID record after award notification.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
Scraping the public HTML profile page of an ORCID record is not 'using the ORCID API'.
Not an instance
An internal copy of ORCID data refreshed from the annual public data file is not the ORCID API.

Editorial commentary

The Public API is free and supports OAuth authentication for read-public access and for collecting authenticated iDs. The Member API is restricted to paying members and supports read-limited and read/update/delete on records for which the member has obtained a researcher-granted scope token. Both tiers are versioned (currently 3.0) and expose endpoints for /record, /works, /employments, /fundings, /peer-reviews, /educations, and /qualifications.

References

ORCID Inc., 'ORCID API Documentation v3.0' (members.orcid.org/api).

Also known as

ORCID REST API

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="ORCID API"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/orcid-api" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/orcid-api",
  "name": "ORCID API",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/orcid-api",
  "description": "The two-tier REST application programming interface (Public API and Member API) operated by ORCID that allows systems to read public ORCID record data and, with researcher authorisation, to read restricted data or write trusted-party assertions to records.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/persistent-identifiers#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/orcid-api",
  "sameAs": [
    "ORCID REST API"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-07-10T02:06:19",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Referenced across the research world

View CASRAI adoption →