Orcid is a system allowing to associate a perennial identifier to a researcher in order to avoid all the problems that the simple use of the name poses: homonymy, name change during a career …
It is more and more used. For example, it is taken into account when registering a DOI. It is also used by many research projects at European or international level.
Thus, a large number of scientists already have an Orcid.
So we followed this trend and decided that NorthStar would use Orcid as an authentication system. Moreover, this exempts NorthStar from storing certain confidential information such as a password.