Open Science for Arts, Design and Music/Guidelines/PID

What are Persistent Identifiers and why are they important for visibility, citability of my research?

What is a PID and what is the value of PIDs?

PIDs are sometimes described as a social security number for a research object (source). They ensure unambiguous identification and secure location of research outputs even if their associated URL changes over time. PIDs and the metadata associated with them are both visible to machines and humans and help them equally to describe the type of resource, where to find it, and how to reuse it. But it is not only research outputs such as publications or data sets that can have PIDs assigned but also content creators (scholars), organisations or even funding bodies. With the help of them, we can persistently link and connect articles with the underlying data, software and funding information across the research lifecycle to support the reproducibility of their research and maintain the provenance footprints for each output over all their versions.

PIDs that are most frequently used in scholarly communication (a non-exhaustive overview)

Abbreviation	Description	Typical content type	Where to get	Example
DOI	DOIs are digital identifiers for objects (whether digital, physical or abstract) which can be assigned by organisations in membership of one of the DOI Registration Agencies; the two best known ones are CrossRef, for journal articles and some other scholarly publications, and DataCite for a wide range of data objects. As well as the object identifier, DOI has a system infrastructure to ensure a URL resolves to the correct location for that object. (source)	Most typically for research articles, books but also other digital content types	1. ) From publishers withCrossRef or DataCite membership 2.) From institutional libraries who has DataCite membership 3.) From data repositories	Paper: https://doi.org/10.3390/app12052426 Book: https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0192 Book chapter: https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0192.05 Data set: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3893546
ORCID ID	Your ORCID iD is a unique, open digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher with the same or a similar name to you. (source and further reading) || Persons || From ORCID || https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7794-0218
HDL	Handles are unique and persistent identifiers for Internet resources, with a central registry to resolve URLs to the current location. Each Handle identifies a single resource, and the organisation which created or now maintains the resource. The Handle system also underpins the technical infrastructure of DOIs, which are a special type of Handles. (source)	Data sets (finished or unfinished) and other digital scholarly objects	From repositories or to implement a handle system, directly from the Handle.Net Registry	https://hdl.handle.net/11378/0000-000B-BE89-5
ARK	ARK is an identifier scheme conceived by the California Digital Library (CDL), aiming to identify objects in a persistent way. The scheme was designed on the basis that persistence "is purely a matter of service and is neither inherent in an object nor conferred on it by a particular naming syntax". (source)	Archival resources, data sets at all levels of granularity (large collections vs. pieces of a single document)	From repositories. DASCH also uses ARKs as PIDs. To implement an ARK system, contact the California Digital Library (CDL).	Data set: http://ark.dasch.swiss/ark:/72163/1/081C
Wikidata ID	Each Wikidata entity is identified by an entity ID, which prefixed with Q (e.g. Q12345 ), properties are prefixed by P (e.g. P569 ) and. lexemes are prefixed by L (e.g. L1 ). (source) || Entities, properties, lexemes || Wikidata || https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1593269

The overview above does not include other PIDs types that are primarily used by the library and archival domain such as URNs, PURLs, VIAF IDs, or PIDs that are specifically designed for one preprint repository such as arxiv ID or HAL ID.

For a more detailed guide with decision trees) to select PIDs for different content types with different budgets etc. see: https://zenodo.org/record/4192174#.Y0bwa0xBy00

PID graphs

One of the most powerful aspect of PIDs is that enable persistent and machine-readable linking of different entities that different entities expressing different relationships within the research landscape, such as: linking publications with underlying datasets, source materials, software or other relevant digital output; linking authors to their publications (see ORCID IDs) or research funders to the projects or output they are funding. Or even all at once!You can see examples here: https://github.com/datacite/freya/issues?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22PID+Graph%22++label%3A%22user+story%22+ or embedded in a discovers service here: https://dariah.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=od_______166::2f23ea37884763e88efff618d3f33688

Further reading https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_Identifier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_identifier https://support.orcid.org/hc/en-us/articles/360006971013-What-are-persistent-identifiers-PIDs- https://www.dpconline.org/handbook/technical-solutions-and-tools/persistent-identifiers https://de.dariah.eu/en/persistent-identifiers https://www.pidforum.org/t/why-use-persistent-identifiers/714/4 https://dariahopen.hypotheses.org/1210