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Get started with the NTO Registry
For stakeholders like policy makers, institutions, funders, and researchers: this page helps you navigate and use the registry.
Understanding the chain
Moving from credit, to recognition and reward
Credit, recognition, and reward are sequential, and not interchangeable. Formal credit for a contribution makes it visible to recognition processes like institutional appraisal and hiring, and recognition determines whether it ever translates into reward: promotion, salary, or funding. Most assessment systems are built around discrete, easily-counted units like journal articles, so non-traditional outputs (NTOs) usually stall at the very first step, never receiving formal credit at all.
Reward
- Promotion / employment
- Increased salary
- Additional funding
See below to discover how an NTO enters the first stage of credit, so it can be recognised, and in time, rewarded, or choose your stakeholder role for guidance on the sections of this registry most relevant to you.
Help me use the registry
For researchers & digital research technical professionals (dRTPs)
- What you produceYou already produce non-traditional outputs: data, training material, software, research support work, or peer review.
- Infrastructure existsCredit-capture infrastructure exists for most of these, turning effort into a citable, persistent record.
- Where to startStart with your category below to see real examples and find where to register.
Getting a persistent identifier (PID) or a public web presence for your NTO is what lets it enter the credit stage of the chain above. Expand a category below: NTOs with active credit-capture infrastructure are clickable, linking straight to where you can check the details and register.
Data5 output types
Training5 output types
Software6 output types
Research support6 output types
- Strategy Document
- Event Output (Agenda / Proceedings / Report)
- Science Communication / Outreach Media
- Administrative / Compliance Record
- Policy Brief
- Grant Proposal
Peer review2 output types
- Published Peer Review Report
- Grant Evaluation Report
Some NTOs don't have a registration point yet. See why below.
For policy makers
- Ready-made blueprintsInternational reform initiatives such as DORA, CoARA, the Leiden Manifesto, and the Hong Kong Principles are ready-made blueprints for valuing non-traditional outputs.
- Adapt at scaleMost were written for adoption at national or institutional scale. Adapt their commitments into your own research assessment policy.
- CoARA's languageCoARA, for example, already commits signatories to recognising the diversity of contributions to, and careers in, research: language you can reuse directly in a national mandate.
For institutions
- Sign up to reformDiscover and sign up to reform commitments such as CoARA, DORA, or the Hidden REF.
- Policy mandateThat gives your review and promotion criteria a policy mandate to value non-traditional outputs across all 5 categories: Data, Training, Software, Research support, and Peer review.
- Back it with proofBack the mandate with credit-capture infrastructure, so recognition rests on a verifiable record, not just a policy statement.
For funders
- Mandate output typesMandate specific non-traditional output types as fundable deliverables, not just publications.
- Point to infrastructurePoint grantees at Essential-tier infrastructure: Publishing & PID provision and Academic profiles, so mandated outputs actually enter the credit chain.
- Make it enforceableRegistration through these platforms is what makes a mandate enforceable and auditable.
Why don't all NTOs have a registration point?
Of the 24 non-traditional output types (NTOs) in the registry, a handful currently have no active supporting infrastructure yet, for two different reasons:
Some NTO content is inherently sensitive
Grant proposals, grant evaluation reports, and administrative/compliance records involve funding applications, panel reviews, financial audits, and ethics self-assessments: content that's restricted by design, not meant for public indexing. No public registration point exists for these NTOs because a public one wouldn't be appropriate.
Certain NTO infrastructure hasn't emerged yet
These NTOs often end up scattered across disparate points of deposition rather than one citable record. Science communication, for instance, is commonly published on individual news pages or organisation websites with no PID: its relevance is time-sensitive, so it isn't archived the way more durable outputs are. Others stay closer to home, such as supervised student project outputs (often left in internal institutional repositories, e.g. theses) or software demos (sometimes hosted on general-purpose platforms like YouTube), both more institutional in scope and relevance than public. That's a maturity gap in the landscape, not a deliberate exclusion.
Note: relevant infrastructure may already exist but hasn't been added to this registry yet, simply because it's emergent or unknown to us. If you know of one, let us know.
Three examples with no known registration point today:
- Research supportGrant Proposal
- Research supportAdministrative / Compliance Record
- Peer reviewGrant Evaluation Report
Keep exploring
Whatever brought you here, the whole registry is open to browse.
Registry
All 24 output types across 5 categories, with examples and supporting infrastructure.
Explore →Infrastructure
18 platforms that turn output-level effort into citable credit.
Explore →Assessment Reforms
7 international initiatives this registry builds on, including CoARA and the Hidden REF.
Explore →