| Votes | By | Price | Discipline | Year Launched |
| SciCrunch | FREE | Interdisciplinary |
RRID (Research Resource Identifiers) is a community-driven system that assigns unique, persistent identifiers to key research resources—antibodies, cell lines, model organisms, software tools, plasmids, and more. Its mission is simple but vital: ensure that scientific resources are findable, trackable, and unambiguously cited in publications. RRIDs help solve long-standing reproducibility problems by preventing vague or incomplete resource descriptions.
Core Strength: A Registry Built From Trusted, Curated Databases
RRID doesn’t generate all its records from scratch. Instead, it operates as a federated meta-registry, drawing identifiers and metadata from authoritative, domain-specific databases. These registries are the backbone of RRID’s content.
Below are the primary sources of RRID content:
Major Resource Databases Feeding RRID
1. Antibodies
RRIDs for antibodies come from:
- Antibody Registry – the central database that aggregates commercial and academic antibody submissions
- Includes manufacturer catalogs, community submissions, and historical antibody data
- Provides lot numbers, clone info, vendor details, and validation references
This ensures that each antibody used in a paper can be uniquely identified even if catalog numbers change or vendors discontinue products.
2. Cell Lines
RRIDs integrate cell line identifiers from:
- Cellosaurus (SIB/Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics) – the global reference database for cell lines
- Contains information on origin, species, authentication, misidentification warnings, and cross-contamination records
- Known for its reliability and regular curation
Because Cellosaurus flags problematic or mislabeled lines, RRIDs also help guard against reproducibility risks tied to contaminated cell lines.
3. Model Organisms
Model organism RRIDs come from several specialized databases, including:
- MGI (Mouse Genome Informatics) for mouse strains
- ZFIN (Zebrafish Model Organism Database) for zebrafish
- RGD (Rat Genome Database) for rat lines
- FlyBase for Drosophila
- WormBase for C. elegans
These databases maintain strain-specific genotypes, alleles, background information, and links to associated phenotypes.
4. Software & Algorithms
RRID entries for tools and software come from:
- SciCrunch’s curated research resource portal
- Community-submitted records from developers and users
- Cross-references from GitHub, institutional pages, and published papers
RRID helps formalize citation of computational tools, which often lack standardized bibliographic metadata.
5. Plasmids
Plasmid identifiers are sourced from:
- Addgene – the global plasmid repository
- Each plasmid deposit on Addgene has a persistent ID and metadata (vector backbone, sequence, depositor, associated publications)
This is especially useful in synthetic biology and gene editing workflows.
Additional Metadata Sources
RRID also integrates information from:
- Publisher systems (via manuscript submissions and required RRID fields)
- Researcher contributions submitted directly through the RRID Portal
- CrossRef and PubMed metadata when linking resources to publications
Why These Sources Matter
The strength of RRID lies in data provenance. Because it federates from authoritative registries:
- Identifiers are consistent and persistent
- Records inherit expert-level curation
- Misidentified or problematic resources are automatically flagged
- Researchers avoid ambiguous resource citations
- Publishers can enforce reproducibility standards with minimal burden on authors
RRID essentially becomes the unifying layer that links diverse biomedical resources into a coherent, globally recognized identification system.