Requesting registry updates

The process of registering ROR IDs and maintaining ROR records is different from the workflows for ORCID iDs and DOIs. Unlike ORCID iDs and DOIs, ROR IDs are created and maintained through a centralized, community-based curation process.

Anyone can request additions or updates to the registry. You can suggest that an organization be added to ROR or that an existing organization’s record be modified even if you are not associated with that organization.

Suggest an addition or update to ROR

After a registry request is submitted, the proposed change is reviewed by ROR’s metadata curation lead and curation advisory board to ensure it is in scope and in line with ROR’s metadata policies. Approved changes are assigned to a future release and the records go through a metadata preparation process and schema validation check before they are deployed on the ROR production site and made available in the ROR API and data dump.

Registry data is updated on a rolling basis. New releases are available at least once every month, so the time between when a request is made and when the approved change appears in the registry is usually 4-6 weeks. Not all requests are approved.

The curation process is openly available on GitHub. Anyone can follow along with the curation process by visiting the issues queue of change requests.

Why did ROR develop this curation model?

ROR developed its curation model following discussions and consultations with community stakeholders about how to approach curation. A number of factors influenced the ultimate model that ROR employs today.

  • Community stakeholders were not in agreement that organizations should control their own records
  • ROR metadata is based on public information about organizations that can be easily verified
  • Centralizing curation is a more scalable approach
  • Allowing for broad community feedback leverages knowledge and expertise from across the community and helps to reinforce community ownership of ROR’s infrastructure
  • Centralizing the review and decision-making process ensures consistency and integrity of metadata across the entire registry

Bulk requests

If you have more than one request, please submit a separate request form for each organization/record or create the corresponding issues in our ror-updates GitHub repository. The latter method requires a GitHub account, but it is generally faster to create a GitHub issue than to complete the form.

If you want to request changes to a large number of existing ROR records, please download the Update Records bulk processing spreadsheet, add all necessary information in a single row for each record, and email the completed spreadsheet to [email protected].

Download the Update Records spreadsheet (XLSX)

If you want to request the addition of a large number of new ROR records, please download and complete the New Records bulk processing spreadsheet, add all necessary information, and email the completed spreadsheet to [email protected].

Download the New Records spreadsheet (XLSX)

Bulk request processing time varies widely depending on the number of updates requested and the completeness of the metadata submitted: see How long will it take for my bulk request to be processed?

Bulk requests, like all other requests, are openly available and can be tracked on GitHub at https://github.com/ror-community/ror-updates/issues.

Scope and criteria for inclusion

ROR is a registry of research organizations. We define “research organization” as any organization that produces, funds, facilitates, manages, publishes, or is otherwise involved in scholarly research. Organizations must be involved in research to be included in the registry.

One of the primary criteria we use for evaluating whether an organization is in scope for ROR is if the organization appears as an affiliation, funder, or publisher in research outputs. Therefore, requests for new ROR IDs are most likely to be successful when they include several links to reputable journal articles, datasets, or other research outputs in which more than one person acknowledges the organization by name.

To be included in the registry, an organization need not be a legal entity, but it should not exist as a subdivision within a single standalone organization, should demonstrate independence from other organizations to which it is related, and should be a collective and enduring entity.

Therefore, the following entities are typically out of scope for ROR:

  • Internal units of companies
  • University faculties, colleges, schools, and departments
  • Funding programs and schemes
  • Projects or initiatives that are not organizations
  • Single-person organizations such as consultancies
  • Journals

ROR supports organizational hierarchy and relationships, but “child” organizations such as research institutes and laboratories should demonstrate a significant degree of independence from “parent” organizations. Separate locations of large organizations can receive “child” ROR IDs for each location.

If you are still not sure whether your organization is in scope for ROR, email [email protected] and we will advise you.

About registry data

ROR registry records include a unique ID for each organization along with additional metadata about each organization to facilitate discovery and disambiguation. The ROR ID is expressed as a URL that resolves to the organization’s record. Search the ROR registry to see examples of ROR records and IDs.

All ROR IDs and metadata are provided under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

More information about the structure of the ROR identifier, the ROR metadata schema, and ROR API is available in ROR’s documentation. 

ROR has some similarities with other organization identifiers, but it differs from them in a few fundamental ways:

  • ROR is completely open (CC0 data, open API)
  • ROR is focused specifically on researcher affiliations and research funding acknowledgements
  • ROR is designed to be supported in core scholarly infrastructure (e.g., Crossref, DataCite, ORCID)
  • ROR is developed as a community initiative

ROR IDs crosswalk to other open, globally used identifiers when they are available. These crosswalks currently include ISNI, Crossref Funder Registry, and Wikidata.

ROR initially launched with seed data from GRID. ROR IDs were synced with GRID between January 2019 and March 2022. GRID has since sunset its publicly available IDs following its announcement in July 2021 that it would discontinue its public data offering. ROR records still include GRID IDs, but GRID IDs no longer resolve to public web pages.

Accessing the registry

The ROR registry is freely and openly available. There are no fees or access requirements for using ROR. There are three ways to look up organizations and organization records in ROR:

Web search

REST API

Dataset

How often is ROR updated?

Registry data is updated on a rolling basis and made available in the search interface, API, and data dump. New releases are available approximately every month. Read the release notes for a summary of what’s in each release. Registry updates are coordinated by ROR’s curation advisory board through an open, community-based process.

Want to suggest a new organization in ROR or make changes to an existing record?

Request a change to the registry

Curation Advisory Board

In conjunction with the metadata curation lead, ROR’s Curation Advisory Board reviews suggested updates to the registry and advises on curation practices and standards for ROR to implement.

Current Curation Advisory Board members

Read more about the board’s activities on GitHub.

Contact [email protected] with questions or comments about ROR Registry data or if you are interested in volunteering for the Curation Advisory Board.