diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 6f9ba74..4b716ce 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -72,8 +72,8 @@ There are a few more examples available that can directly be run using the [bind
 - [Reading TGraph and TGraphError from '.C' files](https://github.com/HEPData/hepdata_lib/blob/main/examples/read_c_file.ipynb)
 [![Binder](https://mybinder.org/badge.svg)](https://mybinder.org/v2/gh/HEPData/hepdata_lib/main?filepath=examples/read_c_file.ipynb)
 <br/><br/>
-- [Preparing scikit-hep histograms](https://github.com/HEPData/hepdata_lib/blob/main/examples/reading_scikithep_histogram.ipynb)
-[![Binder](https://mybinder.org/badge.svg)](https://mybinder.org/v2/gh/HEPData/hepdata_lib/main?filepath=examples/reading_scikihep_histogram.ipynb)
+- [Preparing scikit-hep histograms](https://github.com/HEPData/hepdata_lib/blob/main/examples/reading_scikithep_histograms.ipynb)
+[![Binder](https://mybinder.org/badge.svg)](https://mybinder.org/v2/gh/HEPData/hepdata_lib/main?filepath=examples/reading_scikihep_histograms.ipynb)
 <br/><br/>
 
 ## External dependencies
@@ -82,3 +82,8 @@ There are a few more examples available that can directly be run using the [bind
 - [ImageMagick](https://www.imagemagick.org)
 
 Make sure that you have `ROOT` in your `$PYTHONPATH` and that the `convert` command is available by adding its location to your `$PATH` if needed.
+
+A ROOT installation is not strictly required if your input data is not in a ROOT format, for example, if
+your input data is provided as text files or `scikit-hep/hist` histograms.  Most of the `hepdata_lib`
+functionality can be used without a ROOT installation, other than the `RootFileReader` and `CFileReader` classes,
+and other functions of the `hepdata_lib.root_utils` module.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/docs/dev.rst b/docs/dev.rst
index 86e1f5f..e3a5e1b 100644
--- a/docs/dev.rst
+++ b/docs/dev.rst
@@ -15,6 +15,12 @@ To run the tests, move into the ``hepdata_lib`` directory while in your virtual
 
 It is a good idea to run the tests manually to ensure that your changes do not cause any issues.
 
+If you don't have a working ROOT installation, a subset of the tests can still be run without ROOT:
+
+::
+
+    pytest tests -m "not needs_root"
+
 Definition of test cases
 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
diff --git a/hepdata_lib/c_file_reader.py b/hepdata_lib/c_file_reader.py
index a07c714..2c957e3 100644
--- a/hepdata_lib/c_file_reader.py
+++ b/hepdata_lib/c_file_reader.py
@@ -2,7 +2,10 @@
 import io
 from array import array
 from future.utils import raise_from
-from ROOT import TGraph, TGraphErrors  # pylint: disable=no-name-in-module
+try:
+    from ROOT import TGraph, TGraphErrors  # pylint: disable=no-name-in-module
+except ImportError as e:  # pragma: no cover
+    print(f'Cannot import ROOT: {str(e)}')
 import hepdata_lib.root_utils as ru
 from hepdata_lib.helpers import check_file_existence
 
diff --git a/hepdata_lib/root_utils.py b/hepdata_lib/root_utils.py
index c6d0269..ff1dd28 100644
--- a/hepdata_lib/root_utils.py
+++ b/hepdata_lib/root_utils.py
@@ -3,7 +3,10 @@ from collections import defaultdict
 import ctypes
 from future.utils import raise_from
 import numpy as np
-import ROOT as r
+try:
+    import ROOT as r
+except ImportError as e:  # pragma: no cover
+    print(f'Cannot import ROOT: {str(e)}')
 from hepdata_lib.helpers import check_file_existence
 
 class RootFileReader:
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 456e710..afbb950 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -14,3 +14,6 @@ addopts = [
 ]
 log_cli_level = "info"
 testpaths = "tests"
+markers = [
+    "needs_root: requires a ROOT installation"
+]
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 088f89d..7091159 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ setup(
         'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9',
         'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10',
         'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11',
+        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12',
     ],
     keywords='HEPData physics OpenData',
     packages=find_packages(exclude=['contrib', 'docs', 'tests']),

diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests.yml b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
index 251d276..b560594 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/tests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ jobs:
     strategy:
       matrix:
         os: [ubuntu-latest]
-        root-version: ["6.24", "6.26", "6.28", "6.30"]
+        root-version: ["", "6.24", "6.26", "6.28", "6.30"]
         python-version: ["3.6", "3.7", "3.8", "3.9", "3.10", "3.11"]
         exclude:
           - root-version: "6.24"
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ jobs:
     - uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
     - name: Setup Micromamba environment
+      if: ${{ matrix.root-version }}
       uses: mamba-org/setup-micromamba@v1
       with:
         environment-name: ci
@@ -68,7 +69,22 @@ jobs:
           channels:
             - conda-forge
 
+    - name: Setup Micromamba environment without ROOT
+      if: ${{ !matrix.root-version }}
+      uses: mamba-org/setup-micromamba@v1
+      with:
+        environment-name: ci
+        create-args: >-
+          python=${{ matrix.python-version }}
+          imagemagick
+          ghostscript
+          pip
+        condarc: |
+          channels:
+            - conda-forge
+
     - name: ROOT info
+      if: ${{ matrix.root-version }}
       run: |
         root-config --version
         root-config --python-version
@@ -94,23 +110,30 @@ jobs:
 
     # Use python -m pytest to add current working dir as src/ dir layout not used
     - name: Run pytest
+      if: ${{ matrix.root-version }}
       run: |
         python -m pytest tests
 
+    - name: Run pytest without ROOT
+      if: ${{ !matrix.root-version }}
+      run: |
+        python -m pytest tests -m 'not needs_root'
+
     - name: Report coverage with Codecov
+      if: ${{ matrix.root-version }}
       uses: codecov/codecov-action@v3
       with:
         files: ./coverage.xml
         flags: unittests-${{ matrix.python-version }}
 
     - name: Save notebooks
-      if: ${{ always() }}
+      if: ${{ always() && matrix.root-version }}
       run: |
         python -m jupyter kernelspec list
         python -m jupyter nbconvert --ExecutePreprocessor.timeout=600 --ExecutePreprocessor.allow_errors=True --to html --execute examples/*.ipynb
 
     - name: Upload notebooks
-      if: ${{ always() }}
+      if: ${{ always() && matrix.root-version }}
       uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
       with:
         name: notebooks-${{ matrix.root-version }}-${{ matrix.python-version }}-${{ matrix.os }} py3-${{ matrix.root-version }}-${{ matrix.python-version }}-${{ matrix.os }}
diff --git a/tests/test_cfilereader.py b/tests/test_cfilereader.py
index b77511f..d19c47a 100644
--- a/tests/test_cfilereader.py
+++ b/tests/test_cfilereader.py
@@ -3,8 +3,10 @@
 from unittest import TestCase
 import os
 import numpy as np
+import pytest
 from hepdata_lib.c_file_reader import CFileReader
 
+@pytest.mark.needs_root
 class TestCFileReader(TestCase):
     """Test the CFileReader class."""
 
diff --git a/tests/test_notebooks.py b/tests/test_notebooks.py
index 7783579..b74b0de 100644
--- a/tests/test_notebooks.py
+++ b/tests/test_notebooks.py
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ def common_kwargs(tmpdir):
         'cwd' : 'examples'
     }
 
+@pytest.mark.needs_root
 def test_correlation(common_kwargs):# pylint: disable=redefined-outer-name
     """Tests examples/correlation.ipynb"""
     pm.execute_notebook('examples/correlation.ipynb', **common_kwargs)
@@ -21,14 +22,21 @@ def test_getting_started(common_kwargs):# pylint: disable=redefined-outer-name
     """Tests examples/Getting_started.ipynb"""
     pm.execute_notebook('examples/Getting_started.ipynb', **common_kwargs)
 
+@pytest.mark.needs_root
 def test_reading_histograms(common_kwargs):# pylint: disable=redefined-outer-name
     """Tests examples/reading_histograms.ipynb"""
     pm.execute_notebook('examples/reading_histograms.ipynb', **common_kwargs)
 
+@pytest.mark.needs_root
 def test_combine_limits(common_kwargs):# pylint: disable=redefined-outer-name
     """Tests examples/combine_limits.ipynb"""
     pm.execute_notebook('examples/combine_limits.ipynb', **common_kwargs)
 
+@pytest.mark.needs_root
 def test_c_file(common_kwargs):# pylint: disable=redefined-outer-name
     """Tests examples/read_c_file.ipynb"""
     pm.execute_notebook('examples/read_c_file.ipynb', **common_kwargs)
+
+def test_scikithep_histograms(common_kwargs):# pylint: disable=redefined-outer-name
+    """Tests examples/reading_scikithep_histograms.ipynb"""
+    pm.execute_notebook('examples/reading_scikithep_histograms.ipynb', **common_kwargs)
diff --git a/tests/test_rootfilereader.py b/tests/test_rootfilereader.py
index 4cd0c52..23d1d94 100644
--- a/tests/test_rootfilereader.py
+++ b/tests/test_rootfilereader.py
@@ -5,12 +5,17 @@ from array import array
 import os
 import ctypes
 import numpy as np
-import ROOT
+import pytest
+try:
+    import ROOT
+except ImportError as e:
+    print(f'Cannot import ROOT: {str(e)}')
 from hepdata_lib.root_utils import (RootFileReader, get_graph_points,
                                     get_hist_1d_points, get_hist_2d_points)
 from .test_utilities import float_compare, tuple_compare, histogram_compare_1d, make_tmp_root_file
 
 
+@pytest.mark.needs_root
 class TestRootFileReader(TestCase):
     """Test the RootFileReader class."""
 
diff --git a/tests/test_utilities.py b/tests/test_utilities.py
index eee8d9d..21ebbb0 100644
--- a/tests/test_utilities.py
+++ b/tests/test_utilities.py
@@ -4,8 +4,10 @@
 import os
 import random
 import string
-
-import ROOT
+try:
+    import ROOT
+except ImportError as e:
+    print(f'Cannot import ROOT: {str(e)}')
 from future.utils import raise_from
 
 

Add flag to disable features requiring ROOT
There are use cases where the tool is used but no ROOT installation is available. We should add an option that disables all features that use ROOT to make the other features work independently (e.g. reading in a text file). For ROOT TTrees, we could fall back to uproot.
tests/test_cfilereader.py::TestCFileReader::test_cfile_setter tests/test_cfilereader.py::TestCFileReader::test_check_for_comments tests/test_cfilereader.py::TestCFileReader::test_find_graphs tests/test_cfilereader.py::TestCFileReader::test_read_graph tests/test_notebooks.py::test_scikithep_histograms tests/test_rootfilereader.py::TestRootFileReader::test_get_hist_1d_and_2d_points