Optimizing Research Assessment through ROR IDs

Optimizing Research Assessment through ROR IDs

Insights from Université Laval Library's Experience

By Charlie Lessard-BergerPIDs Librarian Université Laval

2025

ROR

• Research Organization Registry
• Provides identifiers for research and funding organizations
• Open system
• Initiative by California Digital Library, Crossref, and DataCite

Identifier appears as a URL

5 types of relationships

Relationships Can be complicated!

The Case of the CHU/CHUL/CHUQ/CRCHU

Prior to 1995

1995 merger

2012 Merger

Centre Hospitalier de l'Université Laval

Centre hospitalier universitaire de Québec

Hôpital de l'Hôtel Dieu de Québec

CHU de Québec-Université Laval

Hôpital St-François d'Assise

Parent of the Centre de recherche du CHU (CRCHU)The hospitals still exist as physical locations

Hôpital de l'Enfant-Jesus

Centre hospitalier affilié universitaire de Québec

Hôpital du St-Sacrement

ROR at ULaval

An approach focused on research centers

Photo: Claudine Trudel/ULaval

HOW AND WHY DID WE GET MANDATED?

RELATIONSHIPS

DATA ANALYSES

WHO QUALIFIES?

Wouldn't it be nice for bibliometrics? ROR IDs appear in DOI metadata - even if the publisher says they use Ringgold IDs or other

Why only some research centers and not others? We wanted to encourage more research centers to get ROR IDs

The status wasn't always right We noticed that some of our relationships didn't always seem to reflect our reality

WHO GETS A ROR ID?

Reveal

but which one to use?

RESEARCH CENTER ROR ID

University ror ID

• More precise
• Facilitates bibliometrics and other types of analyses. Research centers' publications are often evaluated more thoroughly than those of the insitution as a whole
• Researchers often default to their research center instead of their institution

• It is the employer and main affiliation
• Important for the visibility of the institution
• The institution has deals with publishers. An author who does not use the university as their affiliation could miss out on some of those deals

OR

WHERE TO GO FROM HERE?

• Encourage more qualifying research centers to have ROR IDs
• Encourage researchers to put more than one affiliation when submitting their publications

• Researchers don't need to know or to memorize their ROR ID, but they can understand the basics

• Encourage publishers to allow for multiple affiliations per person
• DSpace: only one affiliation per author at the moment
• Both DataCite and Crossref allow for multiple affiliations
• The new version of OJS (3.5) allows for multiple affiliations per author, and hopefully, this is the direction publishers are moving

Photo: Yvan Doublet/ULaval

That'S all folks!

Thank you for your attendance charlie.lessard-berger@ bibl.ulaval.ca

ROR's 5 relation types