The document discusses the Research Resource Identifier (RRID) system, which aims to improve the identification and tracking of research resources in scientific studies for reproducibility and data aggregation. It highlights the challenges scientists face in reporting research resources and how RRIDs can facilitate better reporting standards and resource tracking across biomedical literature. The RRID initiative, supported by DKNet and the NIH, provides a standardized method to easily track and communicate information about research resources, enhancing the health of the scientific community.

1. Identifying and tracking research
resources using RRIDs: a practical
approach
Anita Bandrowski, Ph.D.
Center for Research in Biological Systems, UCSD
orcid.org/0000-0002-5497-0243
abandrowski@ucsd.edu

2. Monitoring the scientific “food chain”
• Research resources,
e.g, antibodies,
organisms, cell lines,
tools, are the
“ingredients” of
scientific studies

3. The problem
• In the age of global search, we should be able
to easily answer two questions wherever
science is done and communicated:
• What resources were used to produce the
results of this study?
• What other studies have used these
resources?

4. Why?
• For rigor and
reproducibility
• To track impact
• To aggregate data
• To monitor the health of
the scientific food chain

5. Why can’t we do that now?
• Scientists don't report
enough identifying
information to determine
what resource was used
• No standard way for
referencing a research
resource in a paper
• Tracking resources requires
access to full text and
sophisticated natural
language processing (see
point #1)

8. How common is this?
Papers are
currently poor at
identifying the
simplest part of
the paper, the
materials used
Vasilevsky 2013

9. Can this be fixed?
Of course it can!
How: Include a unique identifier for each research entity whenever
it is used
We call this identifier the RRID: Research Resource Identifier
F1000 doi: 10.12688/f1000research.6555.2, Journal of Comparative Neurology (doi: 10.1002/cne.23913),
Brain and Behavior (doi: 10.1002/brb3.417) and NeuroInformatics (doi: 10.1007/s12021-015-9284-3).

10. Resource Identification Initiative
• Community-led effort to
introduce better reporting
standards for research
resources
• Search friendly
• Uniform across
publishers
• Outside of paywall!!! https://www.force11.org/group/
resource-identification-initiative

11. dkNET created the necessary infrastructure
to support RRIDs
• The RRID project takes advantage of NIH
investment into community databases
• NIDDK and NIF funded the means to easily
aggregate these databases to create a single
resource identification portal
• dkNET is providing pipelines and services
around RRIDs

12. Use of RRID’s across journals is increasing

13. Current Progress: Paper published in participating journal
RRID is a unique and stable
identifier that identifies a single
research resource
RRIDs indicate use of a research
resource not simply a mention

14. How do authors find RRID’s
• The accession numbers come
from individual databases that
are the authority for that
resource, e.g., the Antibody
Registry
• dkNET makes it easy to find
these RRIDs by providing a
single search portal
• Over 25 different
databases are searched
using dkNET technologies
Resource IDs from dkNET aggregated databases

15. What can you do with an RRID?
• Resource identification
• Resource tracking and data aggregation
• Monitor the health of the scientific food chain

16. Resource Identification
• Find additional
metadata about
research resources
• Improves reporting
standards within papers
Full metadata via
dkNET

17. SciBot reads a
paper and
brings back
information as
an annotation,
display is in
Hypothes.is
SciBot: App for automatically resolving RRIDs
as an overlay to articles

18. Increased identifiability of resources after the
Resource Identification Initiative Pilot
Bandrowski et al, 2015

19. Resource tracking and data aggregation:
what other studies used this resource?
• Allows easy tracking of use in
the literature
• Track impact of funding
decisions
• Aggregate data across
experiments for individual
organisms; cell lines
• Troubleshoot experiments
• Communicate problems
with research resources
Search for RRID in Google Scholar brings
back a set of papers that used this resource

20. RRID data fills in the
data in the RRID
resolver
Which other papers
used this antibody?
Data about
this paper is
in
Hypothes.is
Annotated data is used in several applications

21. Monitoring the health of the scientific food
chain
• dkNET + RRID gives
us for the first time
a means to
disseminate
information about
the performance of
research resources
New Authentication of
Key Biological Resources
Guidelines are already
affecting most NIH
applications (May 2016
deadline)

22. Problematic cell line annotated
Easily identify papers that have published
with a particular resource and notify
readers that a problem has been reports

23. Know before you go
• dkNET + RRIDs can alert
researchers and
reviewers about known
problems with a given
resource, before the
study is done or enters
into the literature

24. RRID data fills in the
data in the RRID
resolver
Which other papers
used this antibody?
Data about this
paper is in
Hypothes.is
dkNET provides automated services for
tracking research resource use via RRIDs

25. Monitoring the scientific food chain
New Authentication of
Key Biological Resources
Guidelines are already
affecting most NIH
applications (May 2016
deadline)
• dkNET and the RRID ecosystem allow
for the first time a means to
disseminate information about
problematic research resources
before, during and after they enter
the biomedical literature
• Alert:
• Researchers when they are searching
for a resource
• Researchers when they are preparing
their validation sections for an NIH
proposal
• Reviewers and editors when
manuscripts are submitted or
reviewed
• Journals after articles are published
• Readers of articles when they see a
research resource mentioned

26. dkNET provides RRID Resource Services
• dkNET updates data sources
so that researchers are
provided new information on
resources and are informed
of problematic resources
• dkNET can assist grant
submitters in creating an
authentication plan.
Now: Resource reports
Future: Add your own
validation data

27. dkNET Resource Authentication Service
“Is the cell line, I’m using a known
problematic cell line?”

28. Delivering JIT information to readers via
the SciBot App

29. Summary
• The RRID system is a simple yet powerful means for
identifying and tracking use of research resources across
biomedicine
• All NIH-supported stock centers are now part of the RRID
system
• Adoption has continued to grow across biomedical journals
• It is easily extensible
• Widespread adoption supports the creation of tools and
services
• NIH plays a critical role in spurring further use of RRIDs