Persistent Identifiers

Research Organization Registry (ROR) 

The Research Organization Registry (ROR) identifiers are used to distinguish organizations that produce research. Entries are submitted by the wider research community and reviewed by ROR. ROR was created to address the problem that research organizations frequently change, are created, and end. ROR ensures that an organization can be verified and traced, despite what changes the organization goes through. 

ROR is widely supported and used by other metadata organizations, such as Crossref, DataCite, and ORCiD. 

Who uses ROR?

While ROR IDs are a recent development in the PID community, there are many organizations that are already using ROR. For example, DMPTool, a program that allows researchers to create their own Data Management Plans, uses ROR to map researcher affiliations to the correct organization. The ROR ID is also included in the metadata. For a complete list of organizations that use ROR, please consult the ROR community page [2].

ROR API

ROR is the only identifier organization that is open through its open REST API. The ROR REST API allows interested users to "retrieve, search, and filter the organizations indexed in ROR" [3]. The ROR API can also track and provide insight on ROR usage. Through the ROR dashboard, statistics on total requests, queries, and top request URLs can be analyzed [4]. 

Why ROR IDs are Important for your Research

ROR ID make identifying and distinguishing organizations, their researchers, and their outputs easy for the research community. Attaching a ROR ID to the metadata and citation sections of your research make it easy to identify and verify a wide range of organizations that help make research happen, including employment, publishing, sponsoring organizations and funders, and even contributing organizations. 

ROR IDs:

• Debigulate research organizations from one another
• Improve the interconnectivity and consistency of metadata
• Help the research community gain insights into research outputs
• Can be used to track organizational activity
• Create consistent identifiers for organizations, creating powerful links between researchers and their organizations
• Trace research and it's funding to the correct organization and authors, especially when used in combination with other identifiers such as ORCiDs and DOIs

ROR IDs for Funders

As of September 2023, ROR IDs are making the transition to include funder information and organizations, replacing Crossref Funder IDs. This transition will make it easier to identify organizations as now there will be 1 identifier for all organizations, not 1 for funders and 1 for research organizations. As research organizations are often also funders, this change will unite these organizations under 1 identifier. All persistent identifiers created through Crossref will be adjusted to resolve to the new correct page. To learn more about this transition, view the comprehensive document on ROR [5].

Parts of a ROR ID Record

ROR IDs are more than names and persistent identifiers. ROR IDs also contain other information that may be important for identifying an organization.

ROR ID Records Contain:

• ROR ID
• Name of the organization,
• Other names or acronyms the organization may be known as 
• The organization's website
• Organization type
• Any relationships the organization may have
  • Parent organization for overseeing organization
  • Child relationship for smaller organization within this organization
• Location (with GeoNames ID)
• Year established
• Other Identifiers
  • ISNI ID
  • Wikidata ID
  • GRID ID
  • Crossref Funder ID