Free ORCID Checker
Paste any ORCID ID. We validate the checksum and pull the researcher's h-index, citations, and affiliation from OpenAlex.
How the ORCID Checker works
- We strip dashes and check you have 16 characters (15 digits + 0-9 or X check digit).
- The checksum is verified using the ISO/IEC 7064 mod-11-2 algorithm.
- Valid ORCIDs are looked up in OpenAlex.
- If the ORCID is registered, we show the author's profile, citation metrics, and a link to their full publication list.
Why validate an ORCID?
ORCID checksums catch typos. If you receive a co-author list with malformed ORCIDs, that's a sign of careless data entry — or in rare cases, fabricated co-author claims. Always validate before submitting to a journal that requires ORCID for all authors (most major publishers do as of 2026).
Worked examples
Three ORCIDs and what the result panel returns:
0000-0002-1825-0097— the well-known sandbox ORCID (Josiah Carberry). The mod-11-2 checksum passes and, if a matching OpenAlex profile exists, the panel shows works count, total citations, h-index and i10-index in four metric tiles, plus a link to the full author page.https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1613-5981— pasted as a full orcid.org URL. We strip the domain automatically and validate the 16 digits. The panel surfaces the researcher's current affiliation and country when OpenAlex has them.0000-0002-1825-0098— the same digits as the first example but with the final check digit changed. It fails validation, demonstrating how a single-character typo is caught before any lookup. This is the value of the checksum: it flags transcription errors instantly.
What this tool checks and why it matters
An ORCID iD uniquely identifies a researcher and disambiguates people who share a name. The final digit is an ISO/IEC 7064 mod-11-2 checksum, so a mistyped ORCID almost always fails validation — making this a reliable typo detector. Beyond the format check, the tool pulls the author's bibliometric profile from OpenAlex: works count, citations, h-index and i10-index. Why it matters: most major publishers now require an ORCID for every author at submission, and grant systems increasingly key funding records to ORCID. A malformed iD on a co-author list signals careless data entry at best and, in rare cases, a fabricated contributor. Validating each ORCID before submission prevents a desk rejection over a trivial error and lets you confirm a collaborator's publication record is real and matches what they claim.
Common error cases
- Wrong digit count — an ORCID is exactly 16 digits in four groups of four. A missing or extra digit fails length validation.
- Checksum failure — the 16 characters are present but the final check digit is wrong, usually from a single mistyped number.
- Valid ORCID, no works — the iD is real but OpenAlex shows an empty profile. New researchers, or ORCIDs whose works haven't been linked via Crossref/DataCite, validate but return no metrics.
- Confusing ORCID with Scopus Author ID or ResearcherID — those are different identifiers and won't validate here; only the 16-digit ORCID format is accepted.
Frequently asked questions
How do I validate an ORCID iD?
Paste the 16 digits above. We validate the ISO 7064 mod-11-2 checksum and look the author up in OpenAlex, returning h-index, citations, affiliation and works count.
What does an ORCID iD look like?
Sixteen digits in four groups — 0000-0000-0000-000X. The last character can be 0–9 or X. Example: 0000-0002-1825-0097.
My ORCID is valid but shows no works — why?
OpenAlex only displays publications linked back to ORCID via Crossref or DataCite. New or unclaimed ORCIDs validate as real but return empty results.
Where does the data come from?
From OpenAlex, which aggregates ORCID, Crossref and ROR. Citation counts and h-index refresh weekly.
Related tools
- DOI Checker — for article-level lookups
- ISSN Checker — for journal-level lookups
- Browse Researchers — top authors by citation count