Map your research to the SDGs
Sustainability reports, impact ratings and funders all ask which of your research addresses which goal. Discover RIMS labels each publication from OpenAlex’s SDG classification, lets your team review and add labels with AI assistance, and turns the result into filters, charts and exportable lists.
- SDG labels from
- OpenAlex, reviewed by your team
- Review
- AI-suggested, approved by a person
- Reporting
- SDG distribution by faculty and year
- Evidence lists
- Excel and PDF exports by goal
SDG evidence is asked for everywhere, and still assembled by hand
Times Higher Education’s impact assessment changed for 2026: the Sustainability Impact Ratings, previously the Impact Rankings, became membership-based. For the 2027 cycle, only member universities can submit, and data is due on 9 November 2026 (THE). The research metrics in that assessment are derived by THE from Elsevier data, using a query for each SDG supplemented by publications identified by AI, while policy metrics need evidence from the university (methodology).
Whether or not you submit to THE, sustainability reports, funding applications and your own web pages need the same thing: a defensible list of which research addresses which goal. Our guide to what universities get wrong about SDG mapping covers the common pitfalls.
How the SDG record is built
Machine labels first, then human review where it matters.
-
Labels from OpenAlex
OpenAlex runs the open-source Aurora Universities SDG classifier over each work’s title and abstract and assigns goals that score above 0.4. Discover RIMS stores those goals on each publication at every sync.
-
AI-assisted review
An SDG tagging view lists publications with no goal. For each one, an AI model suggests goals, and a member of your team accepts or changes them before saving, one at a time or in bulk.
-
SDG distribution
Analytics shows the number of publications for each of the 17 goals, filterable by faculty and year.
-
Public SDG search
Visitors can filter publication search by goal, and the portal home page links each of the 17 goals to its filtered list.
-
Evidence lists
Administrators can export any filtered publication list, such as one goal for one faculty in one year, to Excel or PDF.
What it does not do
Stated plainly, so you can plan the rest of the work.
- It does not submit data to THE, and its SDG counts will not match THE’s, which THE computes from Elsevier data with its own queries.
- It covers research outputs only. Evidence on policies, operations, teaching and outreach, which makes up much of THE’s methodology, is outside its scope.
- OpenAlex labels are machine classifications. Review them before using them in public claims; the tagging view is built for that.
- It does not measure societal impact, such as policy citations or media coverage, by goal.
Where the data comes from
SDG labels, and the publications they are attached to, come from these sources.
- Publications and citations OpenAlex SDG labels from the Aurora classifier, and the publications and abstracts they are assigned from.
- Researcher identity ORCID Completes each researcher’s publication list, so their SDG-related work is counted.
Further reading
- Insight SDG Mapping for Universities: From Publications to Impact Evidence Funders and rankings want SDG impact evidence. Why manual tagging fails, the pitfalls, and how automated mapping creates a defensible story.
- Insight SDG mapping of research output: what universities get wrong Two systems analysing the same publications disagree more than they agree. What the studies show, why the classifiers differ, and how to report SDG fi...
- Insight Measuring Societal Research Impact Beyond Citations Citations measure scholarly attention, not societal change. The components of a credible, evidenced impact account — and why it needs reconciled data.
Sources: OpenAlex SDG classification · THE Sustainability Impact Ratings 2026 methodology · THE Sustainability Impact Ratings 2027: submitting data
Questions about SDG mapping
Not covered here? Ask us directly
From OpenAlex, which applies the open-source Aurora Universities SDG classifier to each work’s title and abstract. Your team can label the remaining publications with AI-suggested goals that a person approves.
Yes. OpenAlex can assign several goals to one work, and reviewers can choose several.
It helps you understand and evidence your SDG-related research, but it does not submit data to THE or reproduce THE’s research metrics, which THE derives from Elsevier data. Policy and operations evidence has to be gathered separately.