For institutions managing research information, ROR (Research Organization Registry) is the underrated piece of infrastructure that quietly makes everything else work better. It is a community-led, free, open registry of persistent identifiers for research organisations — over 110,000 by mid-2026 — and it is rapidly becoming the default way to reference an institution in scholarly metadata. This article explains what ROR is, why it matters for a RIMS, and how to adopt it inside an institution.
What ROR is
ROR assigns each research organisation a persistent identifier (a short URL like https://ror.org/0167btn53) that resolves to a canonical record of the institution's name, name variants, location, parent organisations, and related identifiers. Unlike institutional names — which vary by language, spelling, and translation — a ROR identifier is unambiguous. Two papers affiliating to "Universitas Hasanuddin" and "Hasanuddin University" can be reliably resolved to the same institution via ROR. The registry is governed openly, with community input on entries and changes.
Why this matters for a RIMS
Affiliation disambiguation has always been one of the messier problems in research information management. A RIMS ingesting publications from ORCID, Scopus, OpenAlex, Crossref, and other sources receives affiliations in dozens of variant forms. Without a persistent identifier, the system relies on string matching — fragile, multilingual, and silently wrong at scale. With ROR, affiliation matching becomes a lookup. A publication whose author affiliation includes a ROR ID can be attributed to the correct institution with no ambiguity.
ROR and ORCID together
ROR complements rather than replaces ORCID. ORCID disambiguates the researcher; ROR disambiguates the organisation. The two work together: a researcher record with an ORCID iD whose affiliation carries a ROR ID is unambiguous at both levels. The ORCID Registry already incorporates ROR as a recognised organisation identifier, and the ROR community continues to deepen the connection between researcher and organisation persistent identifiers. Together they make the institutional research record reliably attributable across systems — the foundation covered in our Scopus Author ID and ORCID article.
How publications, funders, and platforms are adopting ROR
By mid-2026, ROR adoption has crossed a threshold. Europe PMC uses ROR in publication metadata, helping partners surface linked publications at scale. The Janeway platform integrates ROR to reduce data-entry burden, retrieving ROR IDs directly from ORCID profiles. Major funders are beginning to require ROR identifiers on grant applications and reporting. Crossref, OpenAlex, and other infrastructure providers now carry ROR identifiers in their metadata. The trajectory mirrors ORCID's a decade ago — early-adopter use becoming default expectation.
How to adopt ROR institutionally
Adoption is straightforward but requires intent. Identify your institution's ROR record (search at ror.org); verify the canonical name, variants, and parent/child relationships are correct (request corrections via the community process if not); add the ROR ID to institutional signature templates, manuscript submission guidance, and grant application boilerplate so it appears in metadata going forward. Inside the RIMS, ensure affiliation ingestion uses ROR identifiers where available and falls back gracefully where not. Track ROR coverage of incoming publications as an institutional KPI alongside ORCID coverage.
What this looks like in production
Universitas Hasanuddin's publications, like those of every research institution, arrive in the RIMS under multiple affiliation forms — "Universitas Hasanuddin", "Hasanuddin University", abbreviated forms, transliterations. Discover RIMS reconciles these against the institution's ROR record automatically, so the institutional output count, collaboration map, and ranking-submission evidence are correct regardless of which form appears in any individual publication.
Frequently asked questions
Is ROR free? Yes. The registry is community-led, open, and free to use.
Can our institution have more than one ROR ID? Typically one per institutional entity. Distinct campuses or sub-units may have separate IDs in some cases; check the registry.
Will ROR replace ORCID? No — they answer different questions. ORCID disambiguates the researcher; ROR disambiguates the organisation. Both are needed.
How does ROR support CoARA-aligned assessment? By making the institutional record accurate across diverse sources, ROR helps surface the full and correctly attributed evidence base that CoARA-aligned assessment requires.
Where to start
Discover RIMS uses ROR identifiers for affiliation reconciliation alongside ORCID for researcher identity, so the institutional record is accurate at both the person and organisation level — the foundation on which every credible metric, ranking submission, and impact narrative depends.