This new EIFL guide, ‘How to check whether your organization has a ROR ID and get one if it doesn’t’, explains how to find out if an organization has a ROR ID, how to obtain one if it doesn’t, and how to update a ROR record if needed, in four simple steps. 

A ROR ID is a digital, open, unique and persistent identifier for research organizations provided by the Research Organization Registry (ROR), a global, community-led registry of open persistent identifiers for research organizations.

Some research organizations have names in more than one language, others change their names, merge, split, shut down and re-emerge, and this makes it difficult to connect them to research outputs, researchers and projects.  The ROR IDs ensure continuous and accurate identification of research organizations and improve their visibility in discovery and information sharing systems and publishing platforms, help track research output and improve date consistency and minimize errors.

Content discovery systems, publishers, repositories and other research platforms have incorporated ROR IDs into many aspects of their workflows. For example, ROR IDs facilitate inclusion of institutional repositories in the International Repository Directory, managed by the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR), and in the OA Switchboard metadata exchange hub that simplifies the sharing of information between publishers, institutions and funders - two initiatives where EIFL participates. 

The guide is part of an EIFL campaign to help research institutions that are members of our partner library consortia, and that currently do not have ROR IDs, to obtain ROR IDs or update a ROR record. There are over 400 institutions in EIFL partner countries that do not have ROR IDs. Our aim is to reach these institutions in addition to all other consortium member institutions to alert them to check and update their ROR IDs.