Match organization names to ROR IDs

If you have organization names or full affiliations stored in your system as text, there are several approaches to matching those text strings to ROR IDs.

The approaches given below are for cases when you have a list, a spreadsheet, or a database with organization information as text strings, often with "extra" text such as a department or address as well as the organization's name, but no corresponding organization IDs.

Examples of organization names and affiliation information as text strings and the corresponding ROR ID:

  • University of Haifa > https://ror.org/02f009v59
  • Department of Organization and Management Theory, Wrocław University of Economics and Business, Wrocław 53-345 > https://ror.org/00yae6e25
  • University of ManchesterGreater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation TrustNational Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre > https://ror.org/05sb89p83
  • Géosciences Environnement Toulouse (GET), Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, Université de Toulouse > https://ror.org/030syve83
  • Atmospheric Sciences and Global Change Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA > https://ror.org/05h992307

📘

Mapping names and IDs to ROR

If you have organization names along with another global organization ID (Crossref Funder ID, GRID, ISNI, OrgRef or Wikidata), you may find quicker, more accurate results by mapping those other IDs to ROR. See Map other organization ID types to ROR.

If you need to match ROR IDs to user input in a web application, see Create ROR-powered typeaheads in forms.

Match organization names to ROR IDs using the ROR API

Query vs affiliation parameter

The ROR API offers 2 ways to search ROR records, which work slightly differently and return different results:

  • Affiliation parameter /organizations?affiliation=: Searches name, alias and label fields using different search algorithms and returns the best match(es) based on matching score. Includes matching score and true/false indicator of whether the score is high enough to be considered a reliable match. Produces about 85% correct matches in our tests; individual implementations may see better or worse results.

  • Query parameter /organizations?query=: Search all indexed fields in ROR records and returns all matching records. Does NOT include a matching score or true/false indicator of whether the score is high enough to be considered a reliable match.

For cases where you have relatively unique organization names or full affiliation strings, use the affiliation parameter approach. Works for both English and non-English name variations. Examples:

  • University of Wisconsin
  • Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS)
  • Universitätsbibliothek der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
  • Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, University of Pisa, Largo Lucio Lazzarino 2, Pisa 56126, Italy

For cases where you have very common organization names, use the query parameter approach, surround the search string in double quotation marks, and use filters for organization type and country. Examples:

  • Ministry of Health
  • National Research Council

📘

Retrieving active and inactive organizations

By default, both the affiliation parameter and the query parameter will return only records with an active status: status: "active". Consider whether you also want to retrieve records with an inactive status; inactive records generally represent organizations that no longer operate. See the API filtering for details.

Be aware too that inactive organizations may be succeeded by a new organization under a different name with a different ROR ID. If you do retrieve inactive organizations, check the relationships field of an inactive record to see if it has a Successor organization.

Affiliation parameter approach

Searches name, alias and label fields using different search algorithms and returns the best match(es) based on matching score using the format https://api.ror.org/organizations?affiliation=<URL-encoded string> . For the complete list of fields returned and other reference information, see the REST API guide

curl "https://api.ror.org/organizations?affiliation=university+of+wisconsin+madison"

If there's a high-confidence match, it will appear as the first result, with "chosen": true. Other results and their matching score will also be returned, but if you're automating this process using a script, we recommend using results with "chosen": true rather than relying on the score. Results are paginated - see the API paging for details.

{
   "items" : [
      {
         "chosen" : true,
         "matching_type" : "PHRASE",
         "organization" : {
            "acronyms" : [
               "UW"
            ],
            "addresses" : [
               {
                  "city" : "Madison",
                  "country_geonames_id" : 6252001,
                  "geonames_city" : {
                     "city" : "Madison",
                     "geonames_admin1" : {
                        "ascii_name" : "Wisconsin",
                        "code" : "US.WI",
                        "id" : 5279468,
                        "name" : "Wisconsin"
                     },
                     "geonames_admin2" : {
                        "ascii_name" : "Dane County",
                        "code" : "US.WI.025",
                        "id" : 5250074,
                        "name" : "Dane County"
                     },
                     "id" : 5261457,
                     "license" : {
                        "attribution" : "Data from geonames.org under a CC-BY 3.0 license",
                        "license" : "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/"
                     },
                     "nuts_level1" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     },
                     "nuts_level2" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     },
                     "nuts_level3" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     }
                  },
                  "lat" : 43.076694,
                  "line" : null,
                  "lng" : -89.412434,
                  "postcode" : null,
                  "primary" : false,
                  "state" : "Wisconsin",
                  "state_code" : "US-WI"
               }
            ],
            "aliases" : [
               "UW–Madison"
            ],
            "country" : {
               "country_code" : "US",
               "country_name" : "United States"
            },
            "email_address" : "",
            "established" : 1848,
            "external_ids" : {
               "FundRef" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "100007015",
                     "100007870",
                     "100008161",
                     "100008237",
                     "100008028",
                     "100008301",
                     "100005996",
                     "100008959",
                     "100005902",
                     "100005911",
                     "100007925",
                     "100010284",
                     "100009627",
                     "100010495"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : "100007015"
               },
               "GRID" : {
                  "all" : "grid.14003.36",
                  "preferred" : "grid.14003.36"
               },
               "ISNI" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "0000 0001 2167 3675"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               },
               "OrgRef" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "23536538",
                     "2429663",
                     "10260206"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : "23536538"
               },
               "Wikidata" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "Q838330",
                     "Q33122195",
                     "Q7662222"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : "Q838330"
               }
            },
            "id" : "https://ror.org/01y2jtd41",
            "ip_addresses" : [],
            "labels" : [
               {
                  "iso639" : "fr",
                  "label" : "Université du Wisconsin à Madison"
               },
               {
                  "iso639" : "es",
                  "label" : "Universidad de Wisconsin-Madison"
               }
            ],
            "links" : [
               "http://www.wisc.edu/"
            ],
            "name" : "University of Wisconsin–Madison",
            "relationships" : [
               {
                  "id" : "https://ror.org/03ydkyb10",
                  "label" : "University of Wisconsin System",
                  "type" : "Parent"
               },
               {
                  "id" : "https://ror.org/05cb4rb43",
                  "label" : "Morgridge Institute for Research",
                  "type" : "Child"
               }
            ],
            "status" : "active",
            "types" : [
               "Education"
            ],
            "wikipedia_url" : "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Wisconsin%E2%80%93Madison"
         },
         "score" : 1,
         "substring" : "university of wisconsin madison"
      },
      {
         "chosen" : false,
         "matching_type" : "COMMON TERMS",
         "organization" : {
            "acronyms" : [],
            "addresses" : [
               {
                  "city" : "Madison",
                  "country_geonames_id" : 6252001,
                  "geonames_city" : {
                     "city" : "Madison",
                     "geonames_admin1" : {
                        "ascii_name" : "Wisconsin",
                        "code" : "US.WI",
                        "id" : 5279468,
                        "name" : "Wisconsin"
                     },
                     "geonames_admin2" : {
                        "ascii_name" : "Dane County",
                        "code" : "US.WI.025",
                        "id" : 5250074,
                        "name" : "Dane County"
                     },
                     "id" : 5261457,
                     "license" : {
                        "attribution" : "Data from geonames.org under a CC-BY 3.0 license",
                        "license" : "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/"
                     },
                     "nuts_level1" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     },
                     "nuts_level2" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     },
                     "nuts_level3" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     }
                  },
                  "lat" : 43.074233,
                  "line" : null,
                  "lng" : -89.397884,
                  "postcode" : null,
                  "primary" : false,
                  "state" : "Wisconsin",
                  "state_code" : "US-WI"
               }
            ],
            "aliases" : [
               "UW–Extension"
            ],
            "country" : {
               "country_code" : "US",
               "country_name" : "United States"
            },
            "email_address" : null,
            "established" : 1906,
            "external_ids" : {
               "GRID" : {
                  "all" : "grid.300637.1",
                  "preferred" : "grid.300637.1"
               },
               "ISNI" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "0000 0001 2149 9144"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               },
               "OrgRef" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "2405897"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               },
               "Wikidata" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "Q7896641"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               }
            },
            "id" : "https://ror.org/05mdm7050",
            "ip_addresses" : [],
            "labels" : [],
            "links" : [
               "http://www.uwex.edu/"
            ],
            "name" : "University of Wisconsin–Extension",
            "relationships" : [
               {
                  "id" : "https://ror.org/03ydkyb10",
                  "label" : "University of Wisconsin System",
                  "type" : "Parent"
               }
            ],
            "status" : "active",
            "types" : [
               "Education"
            ],
            "wikipedia_url" : "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Wisconsin%E2%80%93Extension"
         },
         "score" : 0.84,
         "substring" : "university of wisconsin madison"
      },
      {
         "chosen" : false,
         "matching_type" : "COMMON TERMS",
         "organization" : {
            "acronyms" : [],
            "addresses" : [
               {
                  "city" : "Madison",
                  "country_geonames_id" : 6252001,
                  "geonames_city" : {
                     "city" : "Madison",
                     "geonames_admin1" : {
                        "ascii_name" : "Wisconsin",
                        "code" : "US.WI",
                        "id" : 5279468,
                        "name" : "Wisconsin"
                     },
                     "geonames_admin2" : {
                        "ascii_name" : "Dane County",
                        "code" : "US.WI.025",
                        "id" : 5250074,
                        "name" : "Dane County"
                     },
                     "id" : 5261457,
                     "license" : {
                        "attribution" : "Data from geonames.org under a CC-BY 3.0 license",
                        "license" : "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/"
                     },
                     "nuts_level1" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     },
                     "nuts_level2" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     },
                     "nuts_level3" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     }
                  },
                  "lat" : 43.092458,
                  "line" : null,
                  "lng" : -89.431814,
                  "postcode" : null,
                  "primary" : false,
                  "state" : "Wisconsin",
                  "state_code" : "US-WI"
               }
            ],
            "aliases" : [
               "UW Health"
            ],
            "country" : {
               "country_code" : "US",
               "country_name" : "United States"
            },
            "email_address" : null,
            "established" : null,
            "external_ids" : {
               "GRID" : {
                  "all" : "grid.412637.5",
                  "preferred" : "grid.412637.5"
               },
               "Wikidata" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "Q30254092"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               }
            },
            "id" : "https://ror.org/03e3qgk42",
            "ip_addresses" : [],
            "labels" : [],
            "links" : [
               "https://www.uwhealth.org/"
            ],
            "name" : "University of Wisconsin Health",
            "relationships" : [],
            "status" : "active",
            "types" : [
               "Healthcare"
            ],
            "wikipedia_url" : ""
         },
         "score" : 0.82,
         "substring" : "university of wisconsin madison"
      },
      {
         "chosen" : false,
         "matching_type" : "COMMON TERMS",
         "organization" : {
            "acronyms" : [
               "UWM"
            ],
            "addresses" : [
               {
                  "city" : "Milwaukee",
                  "country_geonames_id" : 6252001,
                  "geonames_city" : {
                     "city" : "Milwaukee",
                     "geonames_admin1" : {
                        "ascii_name" : "Wisconsin",
                        "code" : "US.WI",
                        "id" : 5279468,
                        "name" : "Wisconsin"
                     },
                     "geonames_admin2" : {
                        "ascii_name" : "Milwaukee County",
                        "code" : "US.WI.079",
                        "id" : 5263058,
                        "name" : "Milwaukee County"
                     },
                     "id" : 5263045,
                     "license" : {
                        "attribution" : "Data from geonames.org under a CC-BY 3.0 license",
                        "license" : "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/"
                     },
                     "nuts_level1" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     },
                     "nuts_level2" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     },
                     "nuts_level3" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     }
                  },
                  "lat" : 43.07503,
                  "line" : null,
                  "lng" : -87.882915,
                  "postcode" : null,
                  "primary" : false,
                  "state" : "Wisconsin",
                  "state_code" : "US-WI"
               }
            ],
            "aliases" : [
               "UW–Milwaukee"
            ],
            "country" : {
               "country_code" : "US",
               "country_name" : "United States"
            },
            "email_address" : "",
            "established" : 1956,
            "external_ids" : {
               "FundRef" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "100006817"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               },
               "GRID" : {
                  "all" : "grid.267468.9",
                  "preferred" : "grid.267468.9"
               },
               "ISNI" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "0000 0001 0695 7223"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               },
               "OrgRef" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "512185",
                     "7322038",
                     "8076822"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : "512185"
               },
               "Wikidata" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "Q1755318"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               }
            },
            "id" : "https://ror.org/031q21x57",
            "ip_addresses" : [],
            "labels" : [
               {
                  "iso639" : "fr",
                  "label" : "Université du Wisconsin–Milwaukee"
               },
               {
                  "iso639" : "es",
                  "label" : "Universidad de Wisconsin–Milwaukee"
               }
            ],
            "links" : [
               "http://www4.uwm.edu/"
            ],
            "name" : "University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee",
            "relationships" : [
               {
                  "id" : "https://ror.org/03ydkyb10",
                  "label" : "University of Wisconsin System",
                  "type" : "Parent"
               }
            ],
            "status" : "active",
            "types" : [
               "Education"
            ],
            "wikipedia_url" : "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Wisconsin%E2%80%93Milwaukee"
         },
         "score" : 0.81,
         "substring" : "university of wisconsin madison"
      },
      {
         "chosen" : false,
         "matching_type" : "COMMON TERMS",
         "organization" : {
            "acronyms" : [],
            "addresses" : [
               {
                  "city" : "Menomonie",
                  "country_geonames_id" : 6252001,
                  "geonames_city" : {
                     "city" : "Menomonie",
                     "geonames_admin1" : {
                        "ascii_name" : "Wisconsin",
                        "code" : "US.WI",
                        "id" : 5279468,
                        "name" : "Wisconsin"
                     },
                     "geonames_admin2" : {
                        "ascii_name" : "Dunn County",
                        "code" : "US.WI.033",
                        "id" : 5251040,
                        "name" : "Dunn County"
                     },
                     "id" : 5262634,
                     "license" : {
                        "attribution" : "Data from geonames.org under a CC-BY 3.0 license",
                        "license" : "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/"
                     },
                     "nuts_level1" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     },
                     "nuts_level2" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     },
                     "nuts_level3" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     }
                  },
                  "lat" : 44.869722,
                  "line" : null,
                  "lng" : -91.927778,
                  "postcode" : null,
                  "primary" : false,
                  "state" : "Wisconsin",
                  "state_code" : "US-WI"
               }
            ],
            "aliases" : [],
            "country" : {
               "country_code" : "US",
               "country_name" : "United States"
            },
            "email_address" : null,
            "established" : 1891,
            "external_ids" : {
               "GRID" : {
                  "all" : "grid.267480.f",
                  "preferred" : "grid.267480.f"
               },
               "OrgRef" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "496737"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               },
               "Wikidata" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "Q2590529"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               }
            },
            "id" : "https://ror.org/01gb8pc70",
            "ip_addresses" : [],
            "labels" : [
               {
                  "iso639" : "fr",
                  "label" : "Université du Wisconsin–Stout"
               }
            ],
            "links" : [
               "http://www.uwstout.edu/"
            ],
            "name" : "University of Wisconsin–Stout",
            "relationships" : [
               {
                  "id" : "https://ror.org/03ydkyb10",
                  "label" : "University of Wisconsin System",
                  "type" : "Parent"
               }
            ],
            "status" : "active",
            "types" : [
               "Education"
            ],
            "wikipedia_url" : "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Wisconsin%E2%80%93Stout"
         },
         "score" : 0.8,
         "substring" : "university of wisconsin madison"
      },
      {
         "chosen" : false,
         "matching_type" : "COMMON TERMS",
         "organization" : {
            "acronyms" : [],
            "addresses" : [
               {
                  "city" : "Madison",
                  "country_geonames_id" : 6252001,
                  "geonames_city" : {
                     "city" : "Madison",
                     "geonames_admin1" : {
                        "ascii_name" : "Wisconsin",
                        "code" : "US.WI",
                        "id" : 5279468,
                        "name" : "Wisconsin"
                     },
                     "geonames_admin2" : {
                        "ascii_name" : "Dane County",
                        "code" : "US.WI.025",
                        "id" : 5250074,
                        "name" : "Dane County"
                     },
                     "id" : 5261457,
                     "license" : {
                        "attribution" : "Data from geonames.org under a CC-BY 3.0 license",
                        "license" : "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/"
                     },
                     "nuts_level1" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     },
                     "nuts_level2" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     },
                     "nuts_level3" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     }
                  },
                  "lat" : 43.07568,
                  "line" : null,
                  "lng" : -89.405897,
                  "postcode" : null,
                  "primary" : false,
                  "state" : "Wisconsin",
                  "state_code" : "US-WI"
               }
            ],
            "aliases" : [],
            "country" : {
               "country_code" : "US",
               "country_name" : "United States"
            },
            "email_address" : "",
            "established" : 1848,
            "external_ids" : {
               "GRID" : {
                  "all" : "grid.28803.31",
                  "preferred" : "grid.28803.31"
               },
               "ISNI" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "0000 0001 0701 8607"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               },
               "OrgRef" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "102863"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               },
               "Wikidata" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "Q10814056"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               }
            },
            "id" : "https://ror.org/03ydkyb10",
            "ip_addresses" : [],
            "labels" : [
               {
                  "iso639" : "fr",
                  "label" : "Université du Wisconsin"
               },
               {
                  "iso639" : "es",
                  "label" : "Sistema Universitario de Wisconsin"
               }
            ],
            "links" : [
               "https://www.wisconsin.edu/"
            ],
            "name" : "University of Wisconsin System",
            "relationships" : [
               {
                  "id" : "https://ror.org/03mnm0t94",
                  "label" : "University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire",
                  "type" : "Child"
               },
               {
                  "id" : "https://ror.org/05mdm7050",
                  "label" : "University of Wisconsin–Extension",
                  "type" : "Child"
               },
               {
                  "id" : "https://ror.org/05hbexn54",
                  "label" : "University of Wisconsin–Green Bay",
                  "type" : "Child"
               },
               {
                  "id" : "https://ror.org/00x8ccz20",
                  "label" : "University of Wisconsin–La Crosse",
                  "type" : "Child"
               },
               {
                  "id" : "https://ror.org/01y2jtd41",
                  "label" : "University of Wisconsin–Madison",
                  "type" : "Child"
               },
               {
                  "id" : "https://ror.org/031q21x57",
                  "label" : "University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee",
                  "type" : "Child"
               },
               {
                  "id" : "https://ror.org/05w22af52",
                  "label" : "University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh",
                  "type" : "Child"
               },
               {
                  "id" : "https://ror.org/05s9f4d27",
                  "label" : "University of Wisconsin–Parkside",
                  "type" : "Child"
               },
               {
                  "id" : "https://ror.org/02xpkhc07",
                  "label" : "University of Wisconsin–Platteville",
                  "type" : "Child"
               },
               {
                  "id" : "https://ror.org/02ep9vf55",
                  "label" : "University of Wisconsin–River Falls",
                  "type" : "Child"
               },
               {
                  "id" : "https://ror.org/05sv6pg41",
                  "label" : "University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point",
                  "type" : "Child"
               },
               {
                  "id" : "https://ror.org/01gb8pc70",
                  "label" : "University of Wisconsin–Stout",
                  "type" : "Child"
               },
               {
                  "id" : "https://ror.org/00z2qhk53",
                  "label" : "University of Wisconsin–Superior",
                  "type" : "Child"
               },
               {
                  "id" : "https://ror.org/049hrzs50",
                  "label" : "University of Wisconsin–Whitewater",
                  "type" : "Child"
               }
            ],
            "status" : "active",
            "types" : [
               "Education"
            ],
            "wikipedia_url" : "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Wisconsin_System"
         },
         "score" : 0.78,
         "substring" : "university of wisconsin madison"
      },
      {
         "chosen" : false,
         "matching_type" : "COMMON TERMS",
         "organization" : {
            "acronyms" : [
               "UWS"
            ],
            "addresses" : [
               {
                  "city" : "Superior",
                  "country_geonames_id" : 6252001,
                  "geonames_city" : {
                     "city" : "Superior",
                     "geonames_admin1" : {
                        "ascii_name" : "Wisconsin",
                        "code" : "US.WI",
                        "id" : 5279468,
                        "name" : "Wisconsin"
                     },
                     "geonames_admin2" : {
                        "ascii_name" : "Douglas County",
                        "code" : "US.WI.031",
                        "id" : 5250831,
                        "name" : "Douglas County"
                     },
                     "id" : 5275191,
                     "license" : {
                        "attribution" : "Data from geonames.org under a CC-BY 3.0 license",
                        "license" : "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/"
                     },
                     "nuts_level1" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     },
                     "nuts_level2" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     },
                     "nuts_level3" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     }
                  },
                  "lat" : 46.717617,
                  "line" : null,
                  "lng" : -92.087341,
                  "postcode" : null,
                  "primary" : false,
                  "state" : "Wisconsin",
                  "state_code" : "US-WI"
               }
            ],
            "aliases" : [
               "UW–Superior"
            ],
            "country" : {
               "country_code" : "US",
               "country_name" : "United States"
            },
            "email_address" : null,
            "established" : 1893,
            "external_ids" : {
               "FundRef" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "100010086"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               },
               "GRID" : {
                  "all" : "grid.267481.e",
                  "preferred" : "grid.267481.e"
               },
               "ISNI" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "0000 0000 9067 9467"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               },
               "OrgRef" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "496738"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               },
               "Wikidata" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "Q10943718"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               }
            },
            "id" : "https://ror.org/00z2qhk53",
            "ip_addresses" : [],
            "labels" : [
               {
                  "iso639" : "fr",
                  "label" : "Université du Wisconsin–Superior"
               }
            ],
            "links" : [
               "http://www.uwsuper.edu/index.htm"
            ],
            "name" : "University of Wisconsin–Superior",
            "relationships" : [
               {
                  "id" : "https://ror.org/03ydkyb10",
                  "label" : "University of Wisconsin System",
                  "type" : "Parent"
               }
            ],
            "status" : "active",
            "types" : [
               "Education"
            ],
            "wikipedia_url" : "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Wisconsin%E2%80%93Superior"
         },
         "score" : 0.76,
         "substring" : "university of wisconsin madison"
      },
      {
         "chosen" : false,
         "matching_type" : "COMMON TERMS",
         "organization" : {
            "acronyms" : [],
            "addresses" : [
               {
                  "city" : "Whitewater",
                  "country_geonames_id" : 6252001,
                  "geonames_city" : {
                     "city" : "Whitewater",
                     "geonames_admin1" : {
                        "ascii_name" : "Wisconsin",
                        "code" : "US.WI",
                        "id" : 5279468,
                        "name" : "Wisconsin"
                     },
                     "geonames_admin2" : {
                        "ascii_name" : "Walworth County",
                        "code" : "US.WI.127",
                        "id" : 5277773,
                        "name" : "Walworth County"
                     },
                     "id" : 5278931,
                     "license" : {
                        "attribution" : "Data from geonames.org under a CC-BY 3.0 license",
                        "license" : "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/"
                     },
                     "nuts_level1" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     },
                     "nuts_level2" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     },
                     "nuts_level3" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     }
                  },
                  "lat" : 42.837537,
                  "line" : null,
                  "lng" : -88.738417,
                  "postcode" : null,
                  "primary" : false,
                  "state" : "Wisconsin",
                  "state_code" : "US-WI"
               }
            ],
            "aliases" : [],
            "country" : {
               "country_code" : "US",
               "country_name" : "United States"
            },
            "email_address" : null,
            "established" : 1868,
            "external_ids" : {
               "GRID" : {
                  "all" : "grid.267484.b",
                  "preferred" : "grid.267484.b"
               },
               "ISNI" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "0000 0001 0087 1429"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               },
               "OrgRef" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "512181"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               },
               "Wikidata" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "Q3551772"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               }
            },
            "id" : "https://ror.org/049hrzs50",
            "ip_addresses" : [],
            "labels" : [],
            "links" : [
               "http://www.uww.edu/"
            ],
            "name" : "University of Wisconsin–Whitewater",
            "relationships" : [
               {
                  "id" : "https://ror.org/03ydkyb10",
                  "label" : "University of Wisconsin System",
                  "type" : "Parent"
               }
            ],
            "status" : "active",
            "types" : [
               "Education"
            ],
            "wikipedia_url" : "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Wisconsin%E2%80%93Whitewater"
         },
         "score" : 0.71,
         "substring" : "university of wisconsin madison"
      },
      {
         "chosen" : false,
         "matching_type" : "COMMON TERMS",
         "organization" : {
            "acronyms" : [],
            "addresses" : [
               {
                  "city" : "Platteville",
                  "country_geonames_id" : 6252001,
                  "geonames_city" : {
                     "city" : "Platteville",
                     "geonames_admin1" : {
                        "ascii_name" : "Wisconsin",
                        "code" : "US.WI",
                        "id" : 5279468,
                        "name" : "Wisconsin"
                     },
                     "geonames_admin2" : {
                        "ascii_name" : "Grant County",
                        "code" : "US.WI.043",
                        "id" : 5254832,
                        "name" : "Grant County"
                     },
                     "id" : 5267332,
                     "license" : {
                        "attribution" : "Data from geonames.org under a CC-BY 3.0 license",
                        "license" : "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/"
                     },
                     "nuts_level1" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     },
                     "nuts_level2" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     },
                     "nuts_level3" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     }
                  },
                  "lat" : 42.734486,
                  "line" : null,
                  "lng" : -90.484764,
                  "postcode" : null,
                  "primary" : false,
                  "state" : "Wisconsin",
                  "state_code" : "US-WI"
               }
            ],
            "aliases" : [],
            "country" : {
               "country_code" : "US",
               "country_name" : "United States"
            },
            "email_address" : null,
            "established" : 1866,
            "external_ids" : {
               "GRID" : {
                  "all" : "grid.267476.6",
                  "preferred" : "grid.267476.6"
               },
               "ISNI" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "0000 0000 9336 5826"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               },
               "OrgRef" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "1142362"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               },
               "Wikidata" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "Q2590962"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               }
            },
            "id" : "https://ror.org/02xpkhc07",
            "ip_addresses" : [],
            "labels" : [
               {
                  "iso639" : "fr",
                  "label" : "Université du Wisconsin–Platteville"
               }
            ],
            "links" : [
               "http://www.uwplatt.edu/"
            ],
            "name" : "University of Wisconsin–Platteville",
            "relationships" : [
               {
                  "id" : "https://ror.org/03ydkyb10",
                  "label" : "University of Wisconsin System",
                  "type" : "Parent"
               }
            ],
            "status" : "active",
            "types" : [
               "Education"
            ],
            "wikipedia_url" : "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Wisconsin%E2%80%93Platteville"
         },
         "score" : 0.7,
         "substring" : "university of wisconsin madison"
      },
      {
         "chosen" : false,
         "matching_type" : "COMMON TERMS",
         "organization" : {
            "acronyms" : [
               "JMU"
            ],
            "addresses" : [
               {
                  "city" : "Harrisonburg",
                  "country_geonames_id" : 6252001,
                  "geonames_city" : {
                     "city" : "Harrisonburg",
                     "geonames_admin1" : {
                        "ascii_name" : "Virginia",
                        "code" : "US.VA",
                        "id" : 6254928,
                        "name" : "Virginia"
                     },
                     "geonames_admin2" : {
                        "ascii_name" : "City of Harrisonburg",
                        "code" : "US.VA.660",
                        "id" : 4763237,
                        "name" : "City of Harrisonburg"
                     },
                     "id" : 4763231,
                     "license" : {
                        "attribution" : "Data from geonames.org under a CC-BY 3.0 license",
                        "license" : "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/"
                     },
                     "nuts_level1" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     },
                     "nuts_level2" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     },
                     "nuts_level3" : {
                        "code" : null,
                        "name" : null
                     }
                  },
                  "lat" : 38.442218,
                  "line" : null,
                  "lng" : -78.868382,
                  "postcode" : null,
                  "primary" : false,
                  "state" : "Virginia",
                  "state_code" : "US-VA"
               }
            ],
            "aliases" : [],
            "country" : {
               "country_code" : "US",
               "country_name" : "United States"
            },
            "email_address" : null,
            "established" : 1908,
            "external_ids" : {
               "FundRef" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "100008289",
                     "100008290"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : "100008289"
               },
               "GRID" : {
                  "all" : "grid.258041.a",
                  "preferred" : "grid.258041.a"
               },
               "ISNI" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "000000012179395X"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               },
               "OrgRef" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "16079"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               },
               "Wikidata" : {
                  "all" : [
                     "Q258943"
                  ],
                  "preferred" : null
               }
            },
            "id" : "https://ror.org/028pmsz77",
            "ip_addresses" : [],
            "labels" : [
               {
                  "iso639" : "es",
                  "label" : "Universidad James Madison"
               }
            ],
            "links" : [
               "http://www.jmu.edu/"
            ],
            "name" : "James Madison University",
            "relationships" : [
               {
                  "id" : "https://ror.org/01rzm0s68",
                  "label" : "Sentara Rockingham Memorial Hospital Medical Center",
                  "type" : "Related"
               }
            ],
            "status" : "active",
            "types" : [
               "Education"
            ],
            "wikipedia_url" : "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Madison_University"
         },
         "score" : 0.65,
         "substring" : "university of wisconsin madison"
      }
   ],
   "number_of_results" : 10
}

🚧

Don't automatically select the first "unchosen" result of an ?affiliation query with no chosen: true result

When no result has "chosen": true, the first result is not necessarily the best match for a given affiliation string. In that case, several results may have the exact same score and/or there may be no match with a high score. Because the affiliation service breaks a given affiliation string into multiple substrings and performs searches of each substring on its own as well as in combination with other substrings, a high scoring match that is not selected as chosen may be a match to only a small portion of the entire affiliation string. In these cases, it is best to respect the absence of "chosen: true" and leave the string unmatched or add a layer of human or machine assignment, at your discretion.

Additional request examples:

Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS)

curl "https://api.ror.org/organizations?affiliation=Incorporated%20Research%20Institutions%20for%20Seismology%20(IRIS)"

Universitätsbibliothek der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

curl "https://api.ror.org/organizations?affiliation=Universit%C3%A4tsbibliothek%20der%20Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit%C3%A4t%20M%C3%BCnchen"

Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, University of Pisa, Largo Lucio Lazzarino 2, Pisa 56126, Italy

curl "https://api.ror.org/organizations?affiliation=Department%20of%20Civil%20and%20Industrial%20Engineering%2C%20University%20of%20Pisa%2C%20Largo%20Lucio%20Lazzarino%202%2C%20Pisa%2056126%2C%20Italy"

Query parameter approach

Search all indexed fields in ROR records using the format https://api.ror.org/organizations?query=<search term>&filter=<filters>. We strongly recommend using organization type and country filters as well as enclosing the search string in URL-encoded quotation marks. For more information, see the REST API guide

curl "https://api.ror.org/organizations?query=%22Ministry+of+Health%22&filter=types:Government,country.country_code:NZ"

The response is a JSON object containing full records for the first 20 search results. Results are paginated - see the API paging for details. Matching scores are not included, however, closest matches are at the beginning of the list.

📘

Query parameter searches may return many results, so some amount of human intervention may be needed to determine the matching ROR ID (if there is one).

{
   "items" : [
      {
         "acronyms" : [],
         "addresses" : [
            {
               "city" : "Wellington",
               "country_geonames_id" : 2186224,
               "geonames_city" : {
                  "city" : "Wellington",
                  "geonames_admin1" : {
                     "ascii_name" : "Wellington",
                     "code" : "NZ.G2",
                     "id" : 2179538,
                     "name" : "Wellington"
                  },
                  "geonames_admin2" : {
                     "ascii_name" : "Wellington City",
                     "code" : "NZ.G2.047",
                     "id" : 7910072,
                     "name" : "Wellington City"
                  },
                  "id" : 2179537,
                  "license" : {
                     "attribution" : "Data from geonames.org under a CC-BY 3.0 license",
                     "license" : "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/"
                  },
                  "nuts_level1" : {
                     "code" : null,
                     "name" : null
                  },
                  "nuts_level2" : {
                     "code" : null,
                     "name" : null
                  },
                  "nuts_level3" : {
                     "code" : null,
                     "name" : null
                  }
               },
               "lat" : -41.272764,
               "line" : null,
               "lng" : 174.777859,
               "postcode" : null,
               "primary" : false,
               "state" : null,
               "state_code" : null
            }
         ],
         "aliases" : [
            "Manatū Hauora"
         ],
         "country" : {
            "country_code" : "NZ",
            "country_name" : "New Zealand"
         },
         "email_address" : null,
         "established" : 1903,
         "external_ids" : {
            "FundRef" : {
               "all" : [
                  "501100001504"
               ],
               "preferred" : null
            },
            "GRID" : {
               "all" : "grid.415708.f",
               "preferred" : "grid.415708.f"
            },
            "ISNI" : {
               "all" : [
                  "0000 0004 0483 5988"
               ],
               "preferred" : null
            },
            "OrgRef" : {
               "all" : [
                  "2250973"
               ],
               "preferred" : null
            },
            "Wikidata" : {
               "all" : [
                  "Q16933991"
               ],
               "preferred" : null
            }
         },
         "id" : "https://ror.org/00vjb5165",
         "ip_addresses" : [],
         "labels" : [],
         "links" : [
            "http://www.health.govt.nz/"
         ],
         "name" : "Ministry of Health",
         "relationships" : [],
         "status" : "active",
         "types" : [
            "Government"
         ],
         "wikipedia_url" : "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Health_(New_Zealand)"
      }
   ],
   "meta" : {
      "countries" : [
         {
            "count" : 1,
            "id" : "nz",
            "title" : "New Zealand"
         }
      ],
      "types" : [
         {
            "count" : 1,
            "id" : "government",
            "title" : "Government"
         }
      ]
   },
   "number_of_results" : 1,
   "time_taken" : 25
}

Matching a list of organization names to ROR IDs using a script

You can write your own script to match a list of organization names to ROR IDs via the ROR API, though some manual intervention will likely be needed to make sure that matches are correct. If you are writing a script, remember the following:

  • Try the affiliation parameter approach first instead of the query parameter approach.
  • Look for "chosen" results where "chosen": true.
  • If no results are found, try alternate names/acronyms (if you have them) or try the query parameter approach.
  • API results are paginated - see API paging for details.
  • By default, API requests will return only records with an active status: status: "active". Consider whether you want to retrieve records with an inactive status as well; inactive records generally represent organizations that no longer operate. See API filtering for details.

See, use, and clone examples of Python scripts that match organization names to ROR IDs in the ror-utilities Github repository.

Match organization names to ROR IDs using the data dump

Instead of using the ROR API, you can use your own scripts or processing tools on the ROR data dump to match organization names to ROR IDs. Advantages of this approach include:

  • Fine-grained control over matching criteria
  • Faster processing in cases where you have many IDs to map
  • No chance of error responses due to network interruptions or API outages

Match organization names to ROR using OpenRefine

The ROR OpenRefine Reconciler is a fairly labor-intensive way of matching organization names to ROR IDs, but it works well for those who have a relatively small list of organization names, those who want to have a high degree of control and oversight over the matching process, and those who do not want to write code.

OpenRefine (formerly Google Refine) is a free, open source desktop tool for cleaning up messy data stored in common formats like CSV, JSON, XML, XLS. You can even use it to connect to SQL-based databases and Google Sheets.

See ROR OpenRefine Reconciler for written usage instructions, screenshots, and a tutorial video.

Match organization names to ROR IDs using third-party tools

Several projects and researchers have developed scripts and/or machine learning and artificial intelligence tools that match textual organization information to ROR IDs. Several of these tools are fast and can work with large amounts of data with accuracy rates before human intervention ranging from about 85% to 95%. These tools are not officially supported by ROR, but we list them here in case you find them useful.