How does ORCID work?
ORCID identifiers do not mean much when you write them on the first page of a paper. Humans usually prefer to see affiliations or email addresses, because they carry more meaning.

However, ORCID iDs are very useful when they are included in the metadata associated with the article. This helps search engines and research information systems identify the authors the paper. As this metadata is rarely shown directly to users, it is not so easy to observe ORCID iDs in the wild. Here are a few examples:


Some papers registered on CrossRef or DataCite have ORCID iDs associated with their authors. For instance, you can search for the papers associated with 0000-0001-5556-6616.
Some repositories also store ORCID iDs, such as Zenodo: for instance, this paper has an id in its metadata.
Some research information systems such as Dissemin display ORCID identified authors with the ORCID logo, as in this example.