Why ORCID is important to researchers?

ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor iD) launched its global, free-to-use registry in 2012 to provide researchers with unique persistent identifiers (ORCID iDs).

Plant Science Today implements ORCID id for the benefit of its authors. Please visit your Profile page to create/add your ORCID id. 

ORCID id has several uses:

• ORCIDs protects your unique scholarly identity
  There are thousands of people per unique surname in China. That’s a lot of “Wang”s! Same for lots of other names.. You’ll probably still need ORCID if you plan to assume your family name, or accidentally omit your middle initial from the byline when submitting a manuscript. ORCID solves the author name problem by giving individuals a unique, 16-digit numeric identification number that lasts over time.
• ORCID supports 37 types of “works,” from articles to dance performances
  Any type of scholarly output you create, ORCID can handle. Are you a traditional scientists, who writes only papers and the occasional book chapter? ORCID can track ‘em. Are you instead a cutting-edge computational biologist who releases datasets and figures for your thesis, as they are created? ORCID can track that, too.
• ORCID is glue for all your research services
  You can connect your ORCID account with websites including Web of Science, Figshare, and Impactstory, among many others. Once they’re connected, you can easily push information back and forth between services–meaning that a complete ORCID record will allow you to automatically import the same information to multiple places, rather than having to enter the same information over and over again on different websites.
• Journals, funders & institutions are moving to ORCID
  Some of the world’s largest publishers, funders, and institutions have adopted ORCID. Over 1000 journals, including publications by PLOS, Nature, and Elsevier, are using ORCID as a way to make it easier for authors to manage their information in manuscript submission systems. ORCID can also collect your publications from across these varied services, making it possible to aggregate author-level metrics.
• When everyone has an ORCID identifier, scholarship gets better
  How many hours have you wasted by filling in your address, employment history, collaborator names and affiliations, etc when applying for grants or submitting manuscripts? For many publishers and funders, you can now simply supply your ORCID identifier, saving you precious time to do research.