What is Ringgold and why it’s important

What is Ringgold?
Ringgold ‘s Identify Database is an authoritative database of over 400,000 records used to disambiguate institutional data.

Why Ringgold is important?
Unique identifiers for institutions provide two major benefits which cannot be achieved via other methods of standardisation: 

• Determining your eligibility for APC discounts: If your institution has signed an open access agreement with us that entitles you to full funding or a discount on your Article Processing Charges, we use your institution’s Ringgold ID to determine this. It is important that you select your Ringgold ID from the dropdown in ScholarOne Manuscripts when you submit your paper.
• Enforcing uniqueness: Many institutions have similar or even identical names. Northeastern University or North Eastern University? Both might subscribe to your journals, but one is in Boston Massachusetts (RIN 1848) and the other in Khon Kaen, Thailand (RIN 65143). Even with a normalized name, you – and your data systems – might have trouble telling these two apart if they are not connected to a unique identifier, causing confusion in reports, customer service, and other areas both internally and external to the institution.
• Enabling linking of data: We have multiple internal data systems that hold information about the same institution: fulfillment, authentication, financial, editorial, and more. By using unique numerical identifiers, a single data element can be used to join these records, regardless of how the name of the institution is rendered.

How to enter your Ringgold ID
When you submit your manuscript, ScholarOne will prompt you to enter your institution. A predictive search which will display the fifteen most similar results based on the letters provided. The search is triggered once you provide three characters and will dynamically update the results based on each character change. You must select an institution from the list.

Can’t find your institution?
When searching for an institution, Ringgold connected institutions will automatically appear in the institution list. If you’re not able to find your institution you are permitted to enter your own, but that institution will not be connected to Ringgold. We suggest trying a few alternate spellings including the full name of the institution or any sub-named departments. Our Editorial team can also help to find your institution if you are unable to. If you’re unsure whether your institution is listed in the Ringgold Database you can also contact Ringgold directly.