# Packaging research artefacts with RO-Crate

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2108.06503 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.06503/

## Key facts

- Cited by 24 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 14 Aug 2021.

## Built on by (most cited first, 24 of 24)

- [Croissant: A Metadata Format for ML-Ready Datasets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.19546/) (2024)
- [Reproducibility in Machine Learning-based Research: Overview, Barriers and Drivers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.14325/) (2024)
- [The Last Human-Written Paper: Agent-Native Research Artifacts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.24658/) (2026)
- [Provenance Tracking in Large-Scale Machine Learning Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.01075/) (2025)
- [Artifact-centered Claim-aware Observability for Autonomous Scientific Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.18312/) (2026)
- [Agora: Git as Shared Memory for Collective AutoResearch](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.18094/) (2026)
- [DISO: A Domain Ontology for Modeling Dislocations in Crystalline Materials](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.02540/) (2024)
- [yProv4ML: Effortless Provenance Tracking for Machine Learning Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.01078/) (2025)
- [Mutual Understanding between People and Systems via Neurosymbolic AI and Knowledge Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.11200/) (2025)
- [F(AI)2R: Who Did What, and Who Checked? Verifiable AI Provenance as an Executable Skill](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.25637/) (2026)
- [Halcyon -- A Pathology Imaging and Feature analysis and Management System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.10612/) (2023)
- [TIB AIssistant: a Platform for AI-Supported Research Across Research Life Cycles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.16442/) (2025)
- [paper.json: A Coordination Convention for LLM-Agent-Actionable Papers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.16194/) (2026)
- [AIMBio-Mat: An AI-Native FAIR Platform for Closed-Loop Materials Discovery and Biomedical Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.21083/) (2026)
- [Clarus: Coordinating Autonomous Research Agents toward Web-Scale Scientific Collaboration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.30246/) (2026)
- [Networked Intelligence: Active Shared Context Graphs for Human-AI Team Science](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.13220/) (2026)
- [CyberNeuro: A Privacy-Preserving Agentic Workbench for Cohort-Scale Neuroimage and Clinical Data Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.28841/) (2026)
- [Traceable Trust for action-ready artificial intelligence in bioscience](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.17997/) (2026)
- [Scientific Data Skills: Enabling Agent-Ready Scientific Data Services at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.19625/) (2026)
- [LLMs Interpret, Embeddings Organize, Graphs Emerge: Agent-Driven Compilation of Scientific Knowledge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.29612/) (2026)
- [Can AI Agents Detect and Repair Artifact Drift in Network Experiments?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.09849/) (2026)
- [A Policy Profile for Croissant: Refusal as a Property of the Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.19640/) (2026)
- [Autonomous Research Project Management as an Agent Skill: A Case Study in Exact Spectral Spatial Regression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.31683/) (2026)
- [An Automated and Reproducible Workflow for Crack Identification and Damage Assessment of Fusion Materials](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.03505/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

An increasing number of researchers support reproducibility by including pointers to and descriptions of datasets, software and methods in their publications. However, scientific articles may be ambiguous, incomplete and difficult to process by automated systems. In this paper we introduce RO-Crate, an open, community-driven, and lightweight approach to packaging research artefacts along with their metadata in a machine readable manner. RO-Crate is based on Schema.org annotations in JSON-LD, aiming to establish best practices to formally describe metadata in an accessible and practical way for their use in a wide variety of situations. An RO-Crate is a structured archive of all the items that contributed to a research outcome, including their identifiers, provenance, relations and annotations. As a general purpose packaging approach for data and their metadata, RO-Crate is used across multiple areas, including bioinformatics, digital humanities and regulatory sciences. By applying "just enough" Linked Data standards, RO-Crate simplifies the process of making research outputs FAIR while also enhancing research reproducibility. An RO-Crate for this article is available at https://w3id.org/ro/doi/10.5281/zenodo.5146227