What is CASRAI? — see page for full answer.

Did CASRAI shut down? Is this the same organisation?

Did CASRAI shut down? Is this the same organisation? — see page for full answer.

How does CASRAI relate to NISO, euroCRIS, CODATA and RDA?

How does CASRAI relate to NISO, euroCRIS, CODATA and RDA? — see page for full answer.

How is CASRAI governed and funded?

How is CASRAI governed and funded? — see page for full answer.

What is the CASRAI Dictionary?

What is the CASRAI Dictionary? — see page for full answer.

Is the Dictionary free to use?

Is the Dictionary free to use? — see page for full answer.

How often is the Dictionary updated?

How often is the Dictionary updated? — see page for full answer.

Can I propose a new term or suggest a correction?

Can I propose a new term or suggest a correction? — see page for full answer.

How do I cite the Dictionary or a specific term?

How do I cite the Dictionary or a specific term? — see page for full answer.

What is CRediT? — see page for full answer.

Does CASRAI own or control CRediT?

Does CASRAI own or control CRediT? — see page for full answer.

Where do I find the canonical list of the 14 roles?

Where do I find the canonical list of the 14 roles? — see page for full answer.

What licence applies to CASRAI content?

What licence applies to CASRAI content? — see page for full answer.

Can I use CASRAI content in a commercial product?

Can I use CASRAI content in a commercial product? — see page for full answer.

Is CASRAI Dictionary data machine-readable?

Is CASRAI Dictionary data machine-readable? — see page for full answer.

How do I become a CASRAI member?

How do I become a CASRAI member? — see page for full answer.

Can individuals join a working group without institutional membership?

Can individuals join a working group without institutional membership? — see page for full answer.

I have a question that isn’t answered here — who do I contact?

I have a question that isn’t answered here — who do I contact? — see page for full answer.

FAQ: CASRAI, the Dictionary & CRediT Explained

Frequently asked questions

What CASRAI is, how it relates to NISO, euroCRIS and CODATA, how the Dictionary and CRediT work, licensing terms, and how to get involved.

This page answers the questions we hear most often about the organisation itself. If you’re looking for author-specific guidance on CRediT statements, AI disclosure, or ORCID, see the author FAQ instead.

About CASRAI

What is CASRAI?: CASRAI (Consortia Advancing Standards in Research Administration Information) is a community-stewarded standards organisation founded in 2006. It develops the CASRAI Dictionary — a citable, openly licensed reference vocabulary for research administration — and originated the CRediT contributor-role taxonomy in 2014. See our mission for the full picture.
Did CASRAI shut down? Is this the same organisation?: In 2020, the CASRAI board wound down day-to-day operations and negotiated a distributed stewardship arrangement: NISO took CRediT and formalised it as ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022; euroCRIS took the Catalogue of Elements; CODATA took the Research Data Management Terminology. The casrai.org domain closed in June 2022. The 2026 revival is a genuine continuation of that lineage — same mission, renewed Dictionary, working groups and editorial board — built on those preserved assets rather than duplicating the work NISO, euroCRIS and CODATA now do. We don’t paper over the 2020 wind-down; see the full history for the honest timeline.
How does CASRAI relate to NISO, euroCRIS, CODATA and RDA?: CASRAI federates with these bodies rather than competing with them. NISO stewards CRediT as a formal ANSI standard; euroCRIS stewards the Catalogue of Elements as a CERIF enrichment; CODATA stewards the Research Data Management Terminology; RDA collaborates on cross-walks. See the federation hub for each partnership.
How is CASRAI governed and funded?: An editorial board sets policy and ratifies Dictionary releases. Twenty working groups — one per dictionary domain — propose, draft and review entries; anyone can join. See governance, the board, and working groups.

The CASRAI Dictionary

What is the CASRAI Dictionary?: A structured, citable reference vocabulary of 714 entries across 20 thematic domains, covering funding, contribution and attribution, identifiers and infrastructure, data and reproducibility, compliance and integrity, and assessment. Each entry is an operational definition with worked examples, counter-examples and Schema.org DefinedTerm markup. See about the dictionary.
Is the Dictionary free to use?: Yes. All Dictionary content is published under CC-BY 4.0 — free to reuse, adapt, translate and embed, including commercially, with attribution. See the licensing page for the recommended attribution string.
How often is the Dictionary updated?: Twice-yearly stable releases, targeted for March and September, versioned as vYYYY.N. Stable entries are frozen between releases; drafts are visible but flagged. See the changelog.
Can I propose a new term or suggest a correction?: Yes — community proposals are reviewed by the relevant working group each release cycle, and accepted contributors are credited using CRediT itself. Start at the contribute flow.
How do I cite the Dictionary or a specific term?: Every term has a stable URI and a recommended citation in APA, Chicago, Vancouver, BibTeX and RIS via the “Cite this term” widget on each entry. For citing the Dictionary as a whole, see the citation policy page.

CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy)

What is CRediT?: A controlled vocabulary of 14 contributor roles — Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Writing, and so on — used to describe what each person contributed to a research output. CASRAI originated CRediT in 2014; it is formally standardised as ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022 and stewarded by NISO. See the CRediT hub for the full picture, or the author FAQ for detailed adoption questions.
Does CASRAI own or control CRediT?: No. CASRAI originated CRediT in 2014 and convened the working groups that built it, but stewardship of the formal standard transferred to NISO in 2020. NISO’s Standing Committee now governs revisions to ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022. CASRAI maintains explanatory and adoption-support content — this hub — but does not control the standard itself.
Where do I find the canonical list of the 14 roles?: The CRediT roles index lists all 14 with canonical definitions, stable URIs and JATS XML mappings, each backed by NISO’s formal standard text.

Licensing & reuse

What licence applies to CASRAI content?: Dictionary entries, CRediT explanatory content, and most guides are published under CC-BY 4.0 unless a page states otherwise. See the full licensing page for exceptions and the recommended attribution string.
Can I use CASRAI content in a commercial product?: Yes — CC-BY 4.0 explicitly permits commercial reuse, provided you attribute CASRAI as the source. If you’re integrating Dictionary or CRediT data into a submission system, CRIS, or publishing platform, see the developer documentation for structured formats (JSON-LD, GraphQL, REST).
Is CASRAI Dictionary data machine-readable?: Yes. Every term carries Schema.org DefinedTerm JSON-LD, and the full Dictionary is downloadable in six formats (JSON-LD, CSV, OWL, RDF, BibTeX, XLSX) from the download page, or queryable live via GraphQL or REST.

Getting involved

How do I become a CASRAI member?: Universities, research councils, publishers and infrastructure organisations can become formal members. See institutional membership or become a member to start.
Can individuals join a working group without institutional membership?: Yes — working groups are open to anyone with relevant expertise or interest, not just member institutions. See the 20 working groups and how to join one.
I have a question that isn’t answered here — who do I contact?: General enquiries go to the contact page. Author-specific questions on CRediT, AI disclosure, ORCID or narrative CVs are covered in depth in the author FAQ.