Organization Names Authority List

Organization Names is an alphabetical authority list of name forms for organizations listed in ICPSR metadata as funding agencies or as corporate authors/principal investigators. The following notes describe the structure and logic of the list:

• This is a 'flat' list, there are no broader/narrower term designations, nor associative relationships. Organizational hierarchy (where it exists) is indicated within each entry as a string, beginning with the largest unit, followed by up to two sub-units of descending size.
  • United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. National Institute on Aging
  • University of Minnesota. Center for Urban and Regional Affairs
  • United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice
  • Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Research Division
  • Australian National University. Research School of Social Sciences
  • United States Agency for International Development. Ghana Mission
• The only reciprocal relationship established refers to non-preferred and preferred name forms. This is designated with Preferred Term and Non-Preferred Term notation where the term following Preferred is the preferred term and the term following Non-Preferred Term indicates the non-preferred term. In the alphabetical list, all non-preferred terms are followed by an asterisk ^* which, when clicked on, will show the appropriate preferred name form to use.

  Examples:

  • Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies ^*
    Preferred Term: Harvard University. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies
  • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration ^*
    Preferred Term: United States Department of Health and Human Services. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
  • Mellon Foundation ^*
    Preferred Term: Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

  Acronyms are not used as organization names, nor are they included in the established name form. Acronyms are included only as non-preferred terms that will lead to the preferred name form to use.

• For non-US organizations that do not include the country within the name itself (as in "Australian Institute of Family Studies", or "Estonian Academy of Sciences"), a parenthetic qualifier has been added to the end of the organization name to identify the country.

  Examples:

  • Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science (Netherlands)
  • Social Science Research Council (United Kingdom)
  • Fritz Thyssen Stiftung (Germany)
  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada)
  • Ajinomoto (Japan)
• United States organization names are listed without the addition of the country qualifier noted above.
• Acronyms are not used as organization names, nor are they included in the established name form. Acronyms are included only as non-preferred terms that will lead to the preferred name form to use.
• Scope notes have been used where necessary to indicate organization name changes and time frame of operation, to provide restrictions on the application of a particular name form, and in some cases to direct the user to the appropriate name form.

  Examples:

  • United States Department of Agriculture. Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service
    SCOPE NOTE: Established 1994. Replaced in 2008 by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Do not use post-2008.
  • Office of Educational Research and Improvement
    SCOPE NOTE: Abolished 2002. Replaced by new organization, Institute of Education Sciences. Do not use post-2002.

  Social Science Research Council (United Kingdom)
  SCOPE NOTE: 1983, name changed to Economic and Social Research Council. Do not use post-1983.
  USE: Economic and Social Research Council (United Kingdom)