👍
ROR Schema v2.1
This page documents ROR metadata schema v2.1. For documentation of ROR metadata schema v1, see <https://ror.readme.io/v1/docs/ror-data-structure>. You can also read more about ROR Schema versions and a summary of what's new in Schema 2.0 and Schema 2.1.

The original ROR metadata schema inherited from GRID in 2019 is now known as version 1.0. After two rounds of community feedback in 2022/2023, metadata schema version 2.0 was developed and beta-tested, then launched into production in April 2024. Schema 2.1, a minor update to v2 that adds additional location information, was launched in December 2024.

Version 1.0 of the ROR schema will continue to be available in the data dump and API at least through April 2025, although we recommend that you use ROR v2.1. Read more about ROR's plans for metadata schema versioning.

If you'd like to request a change to the ROR metadata schema, please submit a schema change request on our roadmap.

Fields

Below are listed the top-level fields (or "elements") in the v2.1 ROR metadata schema along with their names, definitions, types, whether the field is required, and whether a value in the field is required.

Queries to the ROR API will return all fields regardless of whether they have a value. JSON will include null values and empty arrays and objects if there is no value available for the given organization. Values in fields that contain multiple values are sorted by Unicode value, which is alphabetical for characters in the Basic Latin set.

The full JSON schema used for generating and validating ROR records is available at https://github.com/ror-community/ror-schema.

Field name	Definition	Type	Required	Value required	Remarks
id	Unique ROR ID for the organization	String	TRUE	TRUE
admin	Container for administrative information about the record	Object	TRUE	TRUE
domains	The domains registered to a particular institution	Array	TRUE	FALSE
established	Year the organization was established (CE)	Number	TRUE	FALSE
external_ids	Other identifiers for the organization	Array	TRUE	FALSE	Allowed ID types: fundref, grid, isni, wikidata
links	The organization's website and Wikipedia page	Array	TRUE	FALSE
locations	The location of the organization	Array	TRUE	TRUE
names	Names the organization goes by	Array	TRUE	TRUE	Allowed name types: acronym, alias, label, ror_display
relationships	Related organizations in ROR	Array	TRUE	FALSE	Allowed relationship types: related, parent, child, predecessor, successor
status	Whether the organization is active	String	TRUE	TRUE	Allowed values: active, inactive, withdrawn
types	Organization type	Array	TRUE	TRUE	Allowed organization types: education, funder, healthcare, company, archive, nonprofit, government, facility, other

📘
All available fields and sub-fields
See also the complete alphabetical list of All ROR fields and sub-fields in v2.1 of the ROR metadata schema.

Definitions and policies

Policies and expanded definitions for top-level metadata elements. See also ROR Metadata Policies on GitHub.

* indicates a value is required

`id*`

The ROR ID for the organization, created and assigned by ROR. See ROR identifier pattern for more information on how the ROR ID is generated and structured.

`admin*`

A field with information about the ROR record, including the date when the record was created, the schema version in effect when the record was created, the date when the information in the record was last modified, and the schema version in effect when the information in the record was last modified.

`domains`

The domains registered to a particular institution, not including the protocol, path portions, or query parameters that may exist in the URL for the organization's website. An organization's website is stored in the links field.

`established`

The year the organization was established, written as four digits (YYYY).

`external_ids`

Other identifiers for the organization (if available). ROR maps its IDs to four types of external identifiers: GRID, Wikidata, ISNI, and the Crossref Open Funder Registry (formerly “FundRef”).

`links`

The primary website and Wikipedia page for the organization. Only one website URL and one Wikipedia URL should be associated with the record.

In the case of websites with translated versions that use a language suffix like “/en”, the generic URL (without the language suffix) is used as long as the website resolves without it. Otherwise, the English version will be used.

`locations*`

The location(s) of the organization, including continent name, continent code, country name, two-letter ISO-3166 country code, country subdivision name (e.g., Canadian province, Japanese prefecture or US state), country subdivision code, latitude, longitude, and specified location (usually city) name. Location data comes from GeoNames.

A city or specified location is required to populate corresponding data from GeoNames, such as latitude, longitude, country, country subdivision, and continent.

GeoNames data is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.

`names*`

Names for the organization, including four types of names: acronyms, aliases, labels, and the name ROR displays on its web search interface. Names may have multiple types.

Each name variant has a corresponding language tag with the two-letter ISO-639 language code where available. The language is not known for all name variants, so corresponding language codes may be null for some names. ROR name metadata fields support multiple languages and character sets.

acronyms

One or more official acronyms or initialisms for the organization, typically consisting of the first letters of the words in the organization name (e.g., "UCLA" for “University of California, Los Angeles”).
aliases

Used for alternate forms of the organization name that may be now or previously in common use but are not official according to the organization's current website or policy (e.g., "London School of Economics" for "London School of Economics and Political Science"). This field may include both current and historical name variants. ROR does not currently identify which aliases are current versus historical, but future iterations of the ROR schema may differentiate between the two.
labels

Displays equivalent forms of the organization name in one or more languages.
ror_display

The name of the organization displayed most prominently on records in ROR's web search.

With the release of v2 of ROR's schema, ROR no longer assigns a "primary" name for any organization, since these decisions are highly subjective and are often inappropriately Anglocentric. Additionally, a single “primary” name in only one language is inappropriate for organizations located in countries with multiple official languages.

At the same time, many ROR users require a default name for use in their applications. Therefore, each record will have exactly one name of type ror_display. The ror_display name will be used as the main heading on the organization record in the ROR web search and can be used by those who want to select exactly one name for use in their applications.

The primary data source for the ror_display name and the formatting thereof is the organization's website. This may be different than the organization's legal name. Many of the name values in ror_display are in English due to legacy data, but ror_display names may also be in non-English languages, so long as said names are also written in Latin characters. Display limitations in many users' systems require this constraint, but as indicated in the labels section, all label forms, including those in non-Latin character scripts, are considered equivalent.

`relationships`

One or more organizations in ROR that the organization is related to.

Five types of relationships are supported: parent, child, related, predecessor, and successor. An organization can have multiple relationships, but each relationship must be expressed as one of these relationship types. Note that inverse and corresponding relationships are significantly affected by the type of relationship and by record status.

parent, child, and related

Active records: A parent, child, or related relationship in an active record will always have a corresponding relationship in the related active record. For example, if Organization A's record contains a relationship to Organization B with type parent (and both records have status active), Organization B's record must contain a corresponding relationship to Organization A with type child. If Organization C contains a relationship to Organization D with type related (and both records have status active), then Organization D must also contain a corresponding relationship with type related.

Inactive and withdrawn records: When the status of a record is set to inactive, any parent, child, and related relationships are retained in the inactive record as a tombstone and removed from related active records. An active record must not contain a parent, child, or related relationship to a record with a status of inactive or withdrawn since the relationship is no longer considered current. However, a record with a status of inactive may contain a parent, child, or related relationship to a record with a status of active in order to preserve the history of the organizational relationship. Records with a status of withdrawn generally do not retain parent, child, and related relationships.
predecessor and successor

A successor relationship indicates that an organization continues the work of a predecessor organization that has ceased operations. If an organization simply changes its name, it will not receive a successor relationship; instead, the names field of the record for the organization will be modified with the new name added and the previous name retained. The successor relationship also appears in records with a status of withdrawn that were added to ROR in error in order to point users to the correct record in ROR.

The predecessor or successor relationship in a record may have a corresponding relationship in the related record, but the corresponding relationship is not required. For example, if Organization A shuts down and a relationship to Organization B with type successor is added to the inactive record for Organization A, the record for Organization B may or may not contain a corresponding relationship to Organization A with type predecessor.

The successor and predecessor relationship types can appear on records with any status, although in most cases records with a successor will have a status of inactive or withdrawn and records with a predecessor will have a status of active.

Depending on your use case, you may wish to search for ROR records with a status of inactive or withdrawn in your database or application and replace them with the record(s) indicated by the successor relationship where available.

If you are depositing DOI records, the name & ROR ID of the organization should in general be kept historically correct. In other words, if an organization publishes content under a certain name and ROR ID, the name and ROR ID should remain the same in DOI metadata even if the organization later becomes inactive or is merged into a successor organization. Predecessor and successor relationships in ROR records ensure that research can still be tracked despite organizational changes.

`status*`

Indication of whether the organization is active or not, based on a controlled list of status values. Records can be active, inactive, or withdrawn.

active
An organization that is actively producing research outputs.
inactive
An organization that has ceased operation or producing research outputs.
withdrawn
A record that was created in error, such as a duplicate record or a record that is not in scope for the registry.

A record with a status of inactive or withdrawn may have one or more Successor organizations listed in its relationships. Successor relationships indicate that another organization continues the work of an organization that has become inactive or has been withdrawn. See relationships for more information.

`types*`

The type of organization based on a controlled list of categories. An organization always has a type. ROR metadata can support multiple types for a given organization. Allowed types are education, funder, healthcare, company, archive, nonprofit, government, facility, and other.

education
A university or similar institution involved in providing education and educating/employing researchers.
funder
An organization that awards research funds or provides in-kind support. All records that are mapped to a Funder ID will be assigned this type, usually in conjunction with an additional organization type.
healthcare
A medical care facility such as hospital or medical clinic. Excludes medical schools, which should be categorized as “Education”.
company
A private for-profit corporate entity involved in conducting or sponsoring research.
archive
An organization involved in stewarding research and cultural heritage materials. Includes libraries, museums, and zoos.
nonprofit
A non-profit and non-governmental organization involved in conducting or funding research.
government
An organization that is part of or operated by a national or regional government and that conducts or supports research.
facility
A specialized facility where research takes place, such as a laboratory or telescope or dedicated research area.
other
A category for any organization that does not fit the categories above.

Example record

See the JSON structure in an example organization record.

{
   "admin" : {
      "created" : {
         "date" : "2018-11-14",
         "schema_version" : "1.0"
      },
      "last_modified" : {
         "date" : "2024-12-11",
         "schema_version" : "2.1"
      }
   },
   "domains" : [],
   "established" : null,
   "external_ids" : [
      {
         "all" : [
            "501100008427"
         ],
         "preferred" : null,
         "type" : "fundref"
      },
      {
         "all" : [
            "grid.479785.0"
         ],
         "preferred" : "grid.479785.0",
         "type" : "grid"
      }
   ],
   "id" : "https://ror.org/05wgann87",
   "links" : [
      {
         "type" : "website",
         "value" : "https://www.deutsches-stiftungszentrum.de/"
      }
   ],
   "locations" : [
      {
         "geonames_details" : {
            "continent_code" : "EU",
            "continent_name" : "Europe",
            "country_code" : "DE",
            "country_name" : "Germany",
            "country_subdivision_code" : "NW",
            "country_subdivision_name" : "North Rhine-Westphalia",
            "lat" : 51.45657,
            "lng" : 7.01228,
            "name" : "Essen"
         },
         "geonames_id" : 2928810
      }
   ],
   "names" : [
      {
         "lang" : null,
         "types" : [
            "acronym"
         ],
         "value" : "DSZ"
      },
      {
         "lang" : "de",
         "types" : [
            "ror_display",
            "label"
         ],
         "value" : "Deutsches Stiftungszentrum"
      }
   ],
   "relationships" : [
      {
         "id" : "https://ror.org/01f7ent21",
         "label" : "Hermann und Lilly Schilling-Stiftung",
         "type" : "child"
      }
   ],
   "status" : "active",
   "types" : [
      "funder",
      "nonprofit"
   ]
}

Data structure

👍
ROR Schema v2.1

Fields

📘
All available fields and sub-fields

Definitions and policies

`id*`

`admin*`

`domains`

`established`

`external_ids`

`links`

`locations*`

`names*`

`acronyms`

`aliases`

`labels`

`ror_display`

`relationships`

`parent`, `child`, and `related`

`predecessor` and `successor`

`status*`

`active`

`inactive`

`withdrawn`

`types*`

`education`

`funder`

`healthcare`

`company`

`archive`

`nonprofit`

`government`

`facility`

`other`

Example record

👍ROR Schema v2.1

Fields

📘All available fields and sub-fields

Definitions and policies

id*

admin*

domains

established

external_ids

links

locations*

names*

acronyms

aliases

labels

ror_display

relationships

parent, child, and related

predecessor and successor

status*

active

inactive

withdrawn

types*

education

funder

healthcare

company

archive

nonprofit

government

facility

other

Example record

👍
ROR Schema v2.1

📘
All available fields and sub-fields

`id*`

`admin*`

`domains`

`established`

`external_ids`

`links`

`locations*`

`names*`

`acronyms`

`aliases`

`labels`

`ror_display`

`relationships`

`parent`, `child`, and `related`

`predecessor` and `successor`

`status*`

`active`

`inactive`

`withdrawn`

`types*`

`education`

`funder`

`healthcare`

`company`

`archive`

`nonprofit`

`government`

`facility`

`other`