ROR (Research Organization Registry)

Open registry of research organizations. Use it to turn an affiliation string into a ROR ID (https://ror.org/05a0ya142) or to look up one org. It is not a paper database. OpenAlex and Crossref already carry ROR IDs on works; this API is how you mint or check the ID itself.

All figures below verified 2026-09-10. Use the v2 routes.

Base URL

https://api.ror.org/v2

Docs: https://ror.readme.io/docs/rest-api

Authentication

None. Heartbeat: GET https://api.ror.org/heartbeat → OK.

Rate Limits

2000 requests / 5 minutes / IP. Traffic spikes around midnight UTC. For bulk matching, run the API locally (Docker) rather than hammering the public host.

Identifier

A ROR ID is https://ror.org/ plus nine characters (0 + 6 alphanumeric + 2 check-ish chars), e.g. https://ror.org/05a0ya142. The path /v2/organizations/05a0ya142 accepts the suffix alone.

Key Endpoints

1. Keyword / identifier search

GET /v2/organizations?query={text}

Searches only names and external_ids (GRID, ISNI, Wikidata, Crossref Funder ID). It does not search addresses, websites, or relationships.

Unquoted common words explode. Verified:

`query`	`number_of_results`	First hit
`Broad Institute`	13016	Broad Institute (lucky, not guaranteed)
`"Broad Institute"`	3	Broad Institute

Never take items[0] as the match without reading names and status. Quote the string (%22…%22) when the user gave a proper name.

Default page is 20 active records. Filter and page per https://ror.readme.io/docs/api-filtering and https://ror.readme.io/docs/api-paging. Pass all_status=true if you need inactive / withdrawn orgs in a list.

2. Affiliation matcher (unstructured strings)

GET /v2/organizations?affiliation={raw affiliation}

Best for "Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA" dumped from a PDF. As of 2026-05-26 this parameter defaults to the single search strategy.

The JSON is not the same as ?query=. Each item is a match wrapper:

{
  "substring": "Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA",
  "score": 1.0,
  "matching_type": "SINGLE SEARCH",
  "chosen": true,
  "organization": { "id": "https://ror.org/05a0ya142", "names": […], "status": "active" }
}

Read items[].organization and chosen. items[0].id is absent — that is how a naive parse reports "no ROR ID" after a successful match.

Verified: 10 items, first chosen true, organization is Broad Institute.

3. One organization

GET /v2/organizations/{ror_id_or_suffix}

GET /v2/organizations/05a0ya142

Always returns the record, including inactive / withdrawn. Lists hide those statuses by default; a single-id GET does not. Check status before writing the ID into metadata.

v2 records have names[] (with types: ror_display, alias, acronym, label), not a top-level name. /organizations/{id} without /v2 currently still returns the v2 shape; call /v2/ so a future default change does not flip the schema under you.

Typical Workflow

Proper name or GRID/ISNI → ?query="…" and inspect the shortlist.
Messy affiliation line → ?affiliation= and keep rows with chosen: true (or a high score you are willing to stand behind).
Known ROR ID → GET the record and confirm status: active.
Then, if the user wanted papers from that org, search OpenAlex / Crossref with the ROR ID. Do not search ROR for papers.

Failure Modes

What you did	What happens	What to do
Unquoted `University` / `Institute` query	Thousands of hits	Quote the name; do not auto-pick
Read `items[0].id` on an affiliation response	`null`	Use `items[0].organization.id`
Wrote an inactive ROR from a single-id GET	Record exists, `status` is not `active`	Read `status`
Used v1 field `name`	Missing	Use `names[].value`