diff --git a/bin/add_author_id_by_year.py b/bin/add_author_id_by_year.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b6231982dd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/add_author_id_by_year.py
@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+# example usage: python add_author_id.py author_id first_name last_name 2019 2021 2025
+
+from lxml import etree
+import glob
+import string
+
+def add_author_id_to_xml(file_path, first_name, last_name, id_value):
+    try:
+        parser = etree.XMLParser(remove_blank_text=False)
+        tree = etree.parse(file_path, parser)
+        root = tree.getroot()
+
+        match_count = 0
+        skipped_count = 0
+
+        # XPath to find author elements in nested structure
+        authors = root.xpath(".//volume/paper/author")
+
+        for author in authors:
+            first = author.find("first")
+            last = author.find("last")
+
+            if first is not None and last is not None:
+                if first.text == first_name and last.text == last_name:
+                    if "id" not in author.attrib:
+                        author.set("id", id_value)
+                        match_count += 1
+                    else:
+                        skipped_count += 1
+
+        if match_count > 0:
+            tree.write(file_path, encoding="utf-8", xml_declaration=True, pretty_print=False)
+            print(f"[✓] {file_path}: Added id='{id_value}' to {match_count} author(s)")
+            
+            with open(file_path, 'rb') as f:
+                data = f.read()
+
+                if not data.endswith(b'\n'):
+                    with open(file_path, 'ab') as f:  # append in binary mode
+                        f.write(b'\n')
+
+
+
+        if skipped_count > 0:
+            print(f"[i] {file_path}: Skipped {skipped_count} author(s) (already had id)")
+
+    except etree.XMLSyntaxError:
+        print(f"[X] Failed to parse XML in file: {file_path}")
+    except Exception as e:
+        print(f"[X] Error processing {file_path}: {e}")
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    import argparse
+
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Add ID to matching <author> tags in XML files for given years, preserving format.")
+    parser.add_argument("id", help="ID to add to the matching <author> tags")
+    parser.add_argument("first", help="Author's first name to match")
+    parser.add_argument("last", help="Author's last name to match")
+    parser.add_argument("years", nargs="+", help="List of years (e.g., 2020 2021)")
+
+    args = parser.parse_args()
+
+    matching_files = []
+    for year in args.years:
+        matching_files.extend(glob.glob(f"{year}.*.xml"))
+        yy = year[-2:]  # last two digits
+        for letter in string.ascii_letters:  # includes A-Z and a-z
+            matching_files.extend(glob.glob(f"{letter}{yy}*.xml"))
+    matching_files = sorted(list(set(matching_files)),reverse = True, key=lambda x:x.split('.')[0][-2:])
+    if not matching_files:
+        print("[!] No matching XML files found for the given year(s).")
+    else:
+        for file_path in matching_files:
+            add_author_id_to_xml(file_path, args.first, args.last, args.id)