The Resource Identification Initiative: A Cultural Shift in Publishing

Area of Science:

• Biomedical research
• Scientific publishing
• Data management

Background:

• Research reproducibility is crucial but hindered by poor identification of experimental resources.
• Current methods sections lack sufficient detail for unique resource identification.
• This limits the ability to trace resource usage across studies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To pilot the Resource Identification Initiative (RII) for enhancing research resource reporting.
• To improve the identifiability of reagents, tools, and model organisms in scientific publications.
• To increase overall scientific reproducibility through better resource tracking.

Main Methods:

• Engaged biomedical journal editors, scientists, and funding officials.
• Piloted the use of Research Resource Identifiers (RRIDs) for antibodies, model organisms, and tools.
• Developed a central web portal for easy access to RRIDs.

Main Results:

• Over 300 papers published with RRIDs across 62 journals.
• Expanded journal participation from 25 to over 40 publishers.
• Authors demonstrated ability to identify resources and supported the initiative's goals.

Conclusions:

• The Resource Identification Initiative significantly improved the identifiability of research resources.
• RRIDs are machine-readable, free, and consistent across publishers.
• The pilot project successfully demonstrated a positive impact on scientific reproducibility.