OpenAlex and NORA (the Danish National Open Research Analytics team) are pleased to announce a collaboration mapping the OpenAlex research classification system to the OECD Fields of Research and Development (FORD) taxonomy. This alignment supports the upcoming launch of the new Danish Research Portal, but also enables OpenAlex users globally to use the taxonomy in their research analytics.

🎯 Why This Matters for Research Analytics

Widely adopted taxonomies like OECD FORD are critical for international benchmarking, reporting, and policy alignment. At the same time, national governments, research institutions, and regional bodies often rely on their own classification schemes that reflect local research priorities and funding strategies.

By linking OpenAlex’s aboutness classification system with the OECD FORD taxonomy, this collaboration creates:

• A bridge between global standards and national strategy
• An open and transparent alternative to proprietary classification systems
• A pathway for countries and institutions to conduct policy-relevant analytics using fully open data
• A blueprint for creating crosswalks between OpenAlex and additional research taxonomies

This mapping supports both broader interoperability and regionally specific analysis—without compromising either goal.

🧭 How We Built the Mapping

The mapping was developed using a systematic methodology that relates OpenAlex research subfields with OECD FORD categories. OpenAlex uses metadata about research articles (e.g., title, abstract, journal) to classify research outputs into research topics, subfields, fields, and domains (full documentation here).

• OpenAlex subfields were successfully mapped to 38 out of 42 two-digit FORD fields.
• The four remaining categories did not have direct equivalents given the current OpenAlex taxonomy structure.
• The resulting crosswalk supports comprehensive coverage of major research areas across the OECD framework.

The figure below shows the number of OpenAlex subfields that were mapped to each FORD category. A full table listing each OpenAlex subfield and its corresponding FORD categories is available here.

🤖 Combining Expert Knowledge with AI

To ensure quality and scalability, we employed a dual approach:

• A human expert (from OpenAlex) manually assigned OpenAlex subfields to FORD categories.
• The same task was conducted using ChatGPT to test whether AI could reliably assist in classification alignment.

Out of 250+ assignments, the two approaches differed in only 11 cases. These were reviewed in collaboration with researchers in those fields: ChatGPT’s classification was determined a better fit in 7 of the 11 cases, while the human’s classification was a better fit only 4 times!

This result gives both teams confidence in using AI to assist with future classification crosswalks—especially as a way to accelerate mappings between OpenAlex and other national or domain-specific taxonomies.

📊 What the Mapping Enables

Once mapped, the classifications were applied by NORA to publications in the Danish Research Portal, which aggregates research outputs from across Denmark’s institutions. The FORD classifications derived from OpenAlex were then compared with classifications from Scopus and Web of Science.

While proprietary licensing prevents sharing of detailed comparisons, results from the three systems were broadly aligned, with some differences reflecting their underlying methodologies. Importantly, this confirms that open infrastructure can meet the same analytical needs traditionally served by closed systems.

🚀 What’s Next

• OpenAlex users around the world can apply the crosswalk in their own analyses. If you think it’s useful for us to expose the OECD directly in our public API, let us know! If there is enough interest, we’ll add it this year.
  
• The Danish Research Portal will launch in mid 2026, showcasing Danish research outputs across the OECD FORD classifications.

With the new OpenAlex Walden system, we look forward to expanding support for multiple taxonomies to meet the needs of different countries, research communities, and policy environments.

⚠️ Important Note on Use

This mapping is not formally endorsed by the OECD. We consulted with the OECD team and shared preliminary results to ensure accuracy and transparency. However, users conducting official reporting should validate the mapping according to their institutional or national guidance.

🌍 A Shared Vision for Open, Interoperable Research Infrastructure

This collaboration demonstrates what is possible when national research infrastructure and open data providers work together to align global and local needs. By combining methodological rigor, AI-assisted innovation, and a commitment to openness, NORA and OpenAlex are helping advance a more interoperable and transparent research ecosystem.

If your organization or country uses its own classification system and is interested in implementing it in OpenAlex, we invite you to reach out and collaborate with us.

— The OpenAlex and NORA Teams