Following reporting guidelines of all kinds has become common – if not required – practice in health research and publishing over the last decade. The EQUATOR (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research) Network which promotes “transparent and accurate reporting and wider use of robust reporting guidelines”, now makes available 448 reporting guidelines in its online library. Among them is one entitled – “Unique identification of research resources in the biomedical literature: the Resource Identification Initiative (RRID)”. 

As per the two papers cited below, the “Resource Identification Initiative was launched as a pilot project to improve the reporting standards for research resources in the methods sections of papers and thereby improve identifiability and scientific reproducibility”.

• Vasilevsky NA, Brush MH, Paddock H, Ponting L, Tripathy SJ, Larocca GM, Haendel MA. On the reproducibility of science: unique identification of research resources in the biomedical literature. PeerJ. 2013 Sep 5;1:e148. doi: 10.7717/peerj.148. PMID: 24032093; PMCID: PMC3771067. 
• Bandrowski A, Brush M, Grethe JS, Haendel MA, Kennedy DN, Hill S, Hof PR, Martone ME, Pols M, Tan SC, Washington N, Zudilova-Seinstra E, Vasilevsky N; RINL Resource Identification Initiative. The Resource Identification Initiative: a cultural shift in publishing. Brain Behav. 2015 Dec 8;6(1):e00417. doi: 10.1002/brb3.417. PMID: 27110440; PMCID: PMC4834942.

What is a Research Resource Identifier (RRID)?

An RRID is essentially a “Persistent Unique Identifier” that “is designed to help researchers cite the key biological resources used to produce their scientific findings”. Key resources can include: Antibodies, Model Organisms, Cell Lines, Plasmids, and other Tools (software, databases, services). Adding this degree of detail about the resources used in their research makes it possible for others to track these items down should they be interested in replicating or building on the published work. Authors can search for existing RRIDs using the Resource Identification Portal which was created in support of the Resource Identification Initiative, and whose aim is “to promote research resource identification, discovery, and reuse”. 

Not surprising, journal publishers – including Nature and AACR – have gotten on-board and started encouraging the use of RRIDs by authors submitting manuscripts for publication in their journals. In fact, in June 2020, it was announced that AACR journals will be integrating a text-mining tool called SciScore into its journals’ submission platform to help them with better implementing this effort.

From their Press Release:

“SciScore evaluates scientific manuscripts for compliance with recommendations and requirements designed to address different aspects of rigor and reproducibility in the published literature, e.g., MDAR, ARRIVE, CONSORT, and RRID standards. This tool provides a score and a supporting report to identify whether key areas of reproducibility and transparency are addressed in the manuscript.“

To learn more about this new development, be sure to view the video recording of the December 17, 2020 Advancing Authorship event entitled: Meeting the Challenges of Reproducibility, hosted by the MSK Library. The first speaker was Daniel Evanko, PhD, Director of Journal Operations and Systems at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), who has “been heavily involved in efforts to improve the communication, transparency, and reproducibility of published scientific research for over 10 years”. 

For more information on reporting standards, be sure to Ask Us at the MSK Library!