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Should I use CASRAI?

CASRAI develops open standards for research administration — the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT, ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022) and the CASRAI Dictionary. - casrai.org

Depends. Adopt it if you publish research or run a research office: CRediT is a free open standard many funders and publishers mandate. There is no software to buy here — anyone shopping for a tool should look elsewhere.

Confidence

Medium. Based on ~50 public sources; no user reviews or ratings found — adoption evidence is institutional, not consumer.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of useNo usability evidence found
  • Feature depthStandards body, not feature software
  • Support qualityNo support evidence found
  • Security posture

Pricing

Free

CRediT / Dictionary

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes
Dictionary Q&A$29/month

Best for

  • Journal publishers reporting contributions
  • Research offices standardizing data
  • Authors meeting NIH/NSF mandates
  • CRIS implementers mapping fields

Not for

  • Anyone shopping for software — it's a standard, not a tool
  • Small teams wanting something to install and use
  • Buyers expecting SLAs, support, or a security page
  • Non-academic businesses — zero relevance

Gotchas - check before you buy

medium

Adopting means process and data-model change, not an install

medium

Dictionary Q&A is free for 2 questions, then $29/month

low

Guides section mixes affiliate-style software reviews with standards content

low

Funder mandates mean you may have no choice but to comply

Pros and cons

Pros

  • CRediT is a ratified ANSI/NISO standard
  • Widely used by publishers and mandated by funders
  • NIH and NSF funder mandate pages exist
  • Free and open; community-maintained taxonomy
  • Integrates with ORCID and Elsevier Pure CRIS

Cons

  • Standards consortium, not deployable software
  • No public security page on
  • Site publishes third-party tool reviews (CRMs, PDF editors)
  • Domain stewardship handed to euroCRIS — continuity questions

Sources & method

Analyzed 10/04/2026 - 10 sources - No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed; notably, no dedicated security page exists on casrai.org.

official x6review x1security x1news x2
  • No security page found, A dedicated security page was not found on in the sources reviewed.

Key stats

  • Value for money: 5/5

    Rating

  • Free

    Starting price

  • 10

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 5/5. Core standards free; no license fees
  • Ease of use. No usability evidence found
  • Feature depth. Standards body, not feature software
  • Support quality. No support evidence found
  • Security posture: 2/5. No public security page found
  • 14 CRediT roles Defined contributor roles
  • ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022 Standard status CRediT ratified as NISO standard
  • Free Price Open standard, no license fee
  • $29/mo Q&A tool After 2 free questions

Pricing

CRediT / Dictionary

Free

  • Open standard
  • No license fee

Dictionary Q&A

$29/month

  • 2 questions free, no account
  • Cancel anytime

Security

No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed; notably, no dedicated security page exists on casrai.org.

  • No security page foundA dedicated security page was not found on in the sources reviewed.⁷

What users say

No direct user reviews were found; evidence comes from funders, publishers, and academic papers rather than user ratings.

Companies that use it

  • American Physical Society (APS)
  • University of Bristol⁵
  • McMaster University
  • eLife
  • ORCID

Companies that could

  • CODATA Uses CODATA RDM Terminology instead
  • euroCRIS Uses Its own CRIS standards programme instead
Full analysis

Based on ~50 public sources; no user reviews or ratings found — adoption evidence is institutional, not consumer.

Free open standard (CRediT) that funders mandate — use it if you publish research; not software, nothing to buy.

Methodology

Based on ~50 public sources; no user reviews or ratings found — adoption evidence is institutional, not consumer.

Sources

  1. Contributor Roles Taxonomy — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
    official
  2. CRediT Taxonomy: All 14 Contributor Rolescasrai.org
    official
  3. CASRAI — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
    official
  4. CASRAI domain handover — euroCRISeurocris.org
    news
  5. Using the CASRAI Approach — University of Bristolresearch-information.bris.ac.uk
    review
  6. Funder mandates for CRediTcasrai.org
    official
  7. Security pagecasrai.org
    security
  8. NSF funder mandatecasrai.org
    official
  9. Pure CRIS — integration guidecasrai.org
    official
  10. CASRAI: Working Toward Research Information Standards — CNIcni.org
    news

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