For Publishers:

DRAFT INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

RRIDs

We are pleased to be part of the Resource Identification Initiative, a project aimed at clearly identifying the key resources used in the course of scientific research. This project helps address concerns of reproducibility by providing unique searchable identifiers, Research Resource Identifiers (RRIDs), for critical reagents and tools. RRIDs can be used to link readers to external resources, and they also enable search engines to return all papers in which a particular antibody, organism, or tool was used. We see these as important steps toward ensuring reproducible methods and providing critical data to help researchers identify suitable reagents and tools, and we are now asking Neuron authors to include RRIDs in their manuscripts.
 

How to Find an RRID

Fortunately, obtaining an RRID is fairly simple: visit https://scicrunch.org/resources and enter your search term(s) there.

  • Search tip for antibodies: you can narrow your search by including the vendor name and/or catalog number.
  • Search tip for organisms: you can include PubMed IDs (PMIDs) in your search or filter your search results by PMID, species, phenotype, and other criteria.
  • Search tip for cell lines: you can narrow your search by including the catalog number.
  • Search tip for software projects: the name of the project tends to get you close, if you don't see your tool try to add the company or university name.


For more search tips and help, contact rii-help@scicrunch.org. 
 

How to Include RRIDs in Your Paper

Once you have located an RRID, please insert "RRID:" plus the identifier in the appropriate location in the manuscript. For example:

  • Antibodies: "Sections were stained with a rabbit polyclonal antibody against ERK1 (Abgent Cat# AP7251E, RRID: AB_2140114)."
  • Genetically modified organisms: "Subjects in this study were C57/Bl6/J mice (RRID: IMSR_JAX:000664)..."
  • Cell lines: Ro Vid cells (ATCC Cat# CRL-1308, RRID:CVCL_3588) were used....
  • Software projects: We used the PheWas R package (RRID:SCR_003512)...

 

How to Request an RRID

When you cannot find an RRID for a model organism or antibody that you used, you can help this initiative by submitting the reagent, as detailed below, so that it can be given proper identifiers for future use. The Resource Identification Portal includes mouse, zebrafish, worm, fruit fly, and rat model organisms as well as many commercial antibodies and some lab-sourced ones. When you cannot find an RRID for one of these five model organisms, please see the instructions at https://scicrunch.org/resources/about/guidelines#organism for submitting a new organism to the relevant model organism database. Antibodies can be added via the Antibody Registry (http://antibodyregistry.org/add); please note that login is required on that site. 
 

 

Frequently Asked Questions 

How is an RRID generated?
The Resource Identification Initiative builds on existing identifiers -- for instance, from model organism databases and from the Antibody Registry. Read more at https://scicrunch.org/resources/about/resource.

How long does it take to generate a new RRID?
A new RRID for an antibody or a software project can be generated immediately, but curators will be in touch within a day or two to confirm that the entry is unique.  

Where should the RRID be provided?
In the Experimental Procedures or Supplemental Experimental Procedures of your paper.

 

DRAFT LETTER TO AUTHORS

[Name of Journal] is pleased to be a part of the Research Resource Identification Initiative, a project aimed at clearly identifying key research resources, aka materials, used in the course of scientific experiments. These include antibodies, cell lines, model organisms, and software tools. To help authors quickly find the correct identifiers for their materials there is a single web site (http://scicrunch.org/resources) where all resource types can be found and a 'cite this' button next to each resource that contains proper citation text that should be included in the methods section of the manuscript. Several examples of properly formatted methods sections with RRIDs can be found below:

  • Antibodies: "antibody against ERK1 (Abgent Cat# AP7251E, RRID:AB_2140114)."
  • Cell Lines: "we used the following cell lines: RRID:CVCL_1H60,..."
  • Genetically modified organisms: "Fgf9Eks/Fgf9+ mice (RRID:MGI_3840442)..."
  • Software tools: "...terminals were mapped (Neurolucida, v10, RRID:SCR_001775)."

Sincerely,

[Name]