SciScore FAQ

Organism RRID? What is this?

RRIDs are unique identifiers for organisms (and other resources) that largely overlap with the resource types that have been called out by the National Institutes of Health as "key biological resources", e.g., antibodies, cell lines and transgenic organisms. The RRIDs are generated by community repositories, like the National Xenopus Resource, that provide persistent, unique identifiers to their animals.

Because RRIDs are persistent unique numbers they represent both animals that can be currently purchased and those that are not currently available (e.g., stocks became contaminated, or genetic drift shifted the population). Authors should be able to easily define which animal they used, whether or not it is available at the stock center.

SciScore is looking for all organisms used in the study, for example:

Why are the names of these animals so complicated?

Genomic models are governed by the “genomic authorities” now combined into the “Alliance of Genome Resources” https://www.alliancegenome.org/. These genome resources are the experts in nomenclature of genes and strains. RRIDs should reflect the authoritative nomenclature of an organism that is set by the Alliance Resources and citation of individual organisms should follow these rules. To make it a little easier, the RRID portal puts the full name and the full identifier into the “proper citation” field. Copying and pasting that text ensures that not only SciScore, but your colleagues can find the exact strain that you have used.

Organisms obtained from stock centers such as the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center should be listed with their full genomic name, the stock center generated RRIDs and descriptive information.

If your animal does not have an RRID already, please check here to register with the appropriate authority (https://scicrunch.org/resources/about/guidelines#organism). We list the authorities for each organism below, there are also stock centers that provide RRIDs directly. Please consult the latest information at the RRID portal for organisms.

  • Mice, authority: Mouse Genome Informatics (MGI)

  • Rats, authority: Rat Genome Database (RGD)

  • Worm, authority: Wormbase

  • Fly, authority: Flybase

  • Zebrafish, authority: Zebrafish Information Network (ZFIN)

  • Xiphophorus, authority: XGSC

  • Frog (Xenopus), authority: Xenbase

  • Salamander (Ambystoma), authority: AGSC

  • Pig, authority: NSRRC

  • Tetrahymena, authority: Tetrahymena Stock Center

  • Please note, each authority may have one or more associated stock centers. Please check with the RRID portal to find the right organism.

  • Wild type / wild caught animals: authority NCBI Taxonomy

Potential problems with SciScore recognition

SciScore does not recognize any of my organisms. What should I do?

Please add the RRID for each organism that can be identified with an RRID into your paper and please separate each organism with the full information for each.

My animal subject is wild caught. What should I do?

For wild caught animals please use the NCBITaxon ID for the species. RRIDs are typically used for common laboratory species, especially transgenics available from repositories such as Jackson Labs or Bloomingron Drosophila Stock Center. Many of these repositories have RRIDs on their own websites. Animals in the wild can be assumed to be defined by the species name and Taxon ID. To get SciScore to recognize your species and generate an ARRIVE report (if you need one) please use the latin name of the species, “Gallus Gallus” as opposed to vernacular “hen”. We cover animal species that are commonly defined in the literature, if you are having a very hard time getting your white whale paper recognized please contact info - at - scicrunch.org

My mouse has been modified in my lab so it is not the same as the mouse that was bought from the MMRRC repository. What should I do?

While not all organisms have a model organism community database, your friendly neighborhood model organism database is usually the nomenclature authority for your animals. For mice please reach out to Mouse Genome Informatics database, the expert curators there will help you make sure that the nomenclature you used in your manuscript is accurate and they can provide an RRID specific for your mouse. https://www.informatics.jax.org/mgihome/submissions/amsp_submission.cgi

Including a STAR table in your manuscript is a good way to clearly identify all reagents used in your study. SciScore reads STAR tables so don’t forget to submit the table with your methods section.

Go back to RRID help