Persistent Identifiers: Making Research Findable and Connected

Overview

This lesson introduces Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) and their role in making research outputs more findable, accessible, and reliably linked within the research ecosystem. The session situates PIDs within the FAIR principles, focusing especially on their importance for the Findable principle.

Topic, definition and scope

Persistent identifiers (PIDs) are globally unique, actionable and machine-resolvable strings that act as a long-lasting reference to a digital object (e.g. a dataset).
Six examples of PIDs are included in the table below (more are available within FAIRsharing’s identifier schema sub-registry and within the Bioregistry).
Find out more about standards including PIDs with FAIRsharing’s standards factsheet
Bioregistry catalogues identifier resources (e.g., DOI, ORCID, ROR) that assign PIDs. It stores metadata such as their base URL, local unique identifier regular expression pattern, preferred prefix for semantic web contexts, mappings to other registries (e.g., FAIRsharing, BARTOC), and more. Bioregistry has the benefit of being fully open source and having fully open CC0 data to promote community curation and maintenance.

Full name	Acronym	PID for	Registration	Resolver / base URL	FAIRsharing record
Digital Object Identifier	DOI	Digital objects (e.g. research data, text publication)	Through a DOI Registration Agency	https://dx.doi.org/	https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.hFLKCn
Open Researcher Contributor Identification Initiative	ORCID	Scientists (independent of name, institutional and country changes)	Self-registration	https://orcid.org/	https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.nx58jg
Research Organization Registry	ROR ID	Research institutions	On request via form	https://ror.org/	https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.f73143
Data Management Plan ID	DMP-ID	Data Management Plans (DMPs)	As a DOI (`resourceTypeGeneral = “OutputsManagementPlan”`)	https://dx.doi.org/	—
International Generic Sample Number	IGSN ID	Physical objects	Through DataCite	https://www.igsn.org/	https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.c7f365
Research Activity Identifier	RAiD	Research projects	API or manual minting	https://www.igsn.org/	https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.dc702a

The benefits of assigning PIDs are numerous:
- Disambiguation (e.g. between two researchers who have the same first and last names, using their ORCID ID)
- Increase research citation and reach of research outputs
- Contribute to making research data FAIR (see section “FAIR element(s)” for more details)
- Permanent identifiability/referencability/linkage of scientific output/people/institutions/funders

FAIR element(s)

(from the FAIR data maturity model: https://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2020-041)

Findable
- F1 RDA-F1-01M Metadata is identified by a persistent identifier (essential)
- F1 RDA-F1-01D Data is identified by a persistent identifier (essential)
- F3 RDA-F3-01M Metadata includes the identifier of the data (essential)
Accessible
- A1 RDA-A1-03M Metadata identifier resolves to a metadata record (essential)
- A1 RDA-A1-03D Data identifier resolves to a digital object (essential)

References

Bobrov, E., et al. (2021). Workshop on Research Data. Berlin University Alliance and ZB MED Information Centre for Life Sciences. Google Slides.
Cozatl, R., et al. (2021). Workshop on Research Data Management. Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg and ZB MED Information Centre for Life Sciences. Google Slides.
ORCID. What are persistent identifiers (PIDs)? Available at: https://support.orcid.org/hc/en-us/articles/360006971013-What-are-persistent-identifiers-PIDs-
Persistent Identifier Communities Forum. Persistent Identifier (PID) Definition. Available at: https://pidforum.org/t/persistent-identifier-pid-definition/1502
DataCite Metadata Working Group. DataCite Metadata Schema Documentation. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5438/7z70-1155
Fenner, M., & Aryani, A. Connecting Research: ORCID, DOI and other Persistent Identifiers. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5438/j22a-5d79
Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB). PID services. Available at: https://www.tib.eu/en/publishing-archiving/pid-service
Fenner, M., et al. (2020). A data citation roadmap for scholarly data repositories. Data Science Journal. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2020-041
GO FAIR Foundation. Persistent Identifiers for FAIR Digital Objects. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6674301
Staiger, C. (2019). Introduction to Persistent Identifiers. DTL. PowerPoint Slides. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3539188
Persistent Identifier Communities Forum. Why use persistent identifiers? Available at: https://pidforum.org/t/why-use-persistent-identifiers/714
RAiD. Research Activity Identifier (RAiD). Available at: https://www.raid.org.au/
FAIRsharing. Identifier Schemas Registry. Available at: https://fairsharing.org/search?fairsharingRegistry=Standard&recordType=identifier_schema&page=1
FAIRsharing. Educational Factsheet on Standards. Available at: https://fairsharing.org/

Take home tasks/preparation

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Learning outcomes

1

Making participants aware of the issue of missing PID

Beginner
2

Define what a Persistent Identifier (PID) is.

Beginner
3

Recognize common PID systems used in research (e.g., DOI, ORCID, ROR).

Beginner
4

Explain the role of PIDs in making research outputs Findable within the FAIR principles.

Beginner
5

Describe how PIDs help address issues such as broken links, ambiguous authorship, and inaccessible datasets.

Beginner
6

Explain the basic structure and syntax of commonly used identifiers (e.g., DOI or ORCID).

Beginner
7

Use a PID to locate a research output, dataset, or researcher.

Beginner
8

Identify which type of PID should be assigned in different research scenarios (e.g., dataset, author, institution).

Intermediate
9

Analyze research scenarios to determine how missing or incorrect identifiers affect research visibility, reproducibility, and reuse.

Intermediate
10

Apply knowledge of PIDs to identify where they can be used in their own research workflows.

Expert

Lesson agenda

10 activities · 157 min total · grouped by phase

0:00
Group activity LO 1

Experiencing the issue of missing PID
The participating groups will each get various data sets to perform the exercise:
- Group 1 gets a dataset without a DOI;
- Group 2 gets an author without ORCID;
- Group 3 gets a date set with author, ORCID, and DOI
Participants experience what can go wrong without PIDs (without necessarily knowing which PIDs was needed).
15 min Beginner
0:15
Lecture LO 2

Introduction of PIDs within the FAIR framework 1/7
The trainer would provide a lecture aiming at
- Define what PIDs are
- Demonstrate the importance of PIDs
- Emphasize that PIDs are required for data and metadata to be Findable (tie in with FAIR principles)
- Show examples of PIDs within different settings (datasets, publications, people, organizations)
- Demonstrate how a PID can be created (use an example commonly used within your institute, e.g., Zenodo, DataverseNL, 4TU.ResearchData)
20 min Beginner
0:35
Lecture LO 3

Introduction of PIDs within the FAIR framework 2/7
The trainer would provide a lecture aiming at
- Define what PIDs are
- Demonstrate the importance of PIDs
- Emphasize that PIDs are required for data and metadata to be Findable (tie in with FAIR principles)
- Show examples of PIDs within different settings (datasets, publications, people, organizations)
- Demonstrate how a PID can be created (use an example commonly used within your institute, e.g., Zenodo, DataverseNL, 4TU.ResearchData)
20 min Beginner
0:55
Lecture LO 4

Introduction of PIDs within the FAIR framework 3/7
The trainer would provide a lecture aiming at
- Define what PIDs are
- Demonstrate the importance of PIDs
- Emphasize that PIDs are required for data and metadata to be Findable (tie in with FAIR principles)
- Show examples of PIDs within different settings (datasets, publications, people, organizations)
- Demonstrate how a PID can be created (use an example commonly used within your institute, e.g., Zenodo, DataverseNL, 4TU.ResearchData)
20 min Beginner
0:75
Lecture LO 5

Introduction of PIDs within the FAIR framework 4/7
The trainer would provide a lecture aiming at
- Define what PIDs are
- Demonstrate the importance of PIDs
- Emphasize that PIDs are required for data and metadata to be Findable (tie in with FAIR principles)
- Show examples of PIDs within different settings (datasets, publications, people, organizations)
- Demonstrate how a PID can be created (use an example commonly used within your institute, e.g., Zenodo, DataverseNL, 4TU.ResearchData)
20 min Beginner
0:95
Lecture LO 6

Introduction of PIDs within the FAIR framework 5/7
The trainer would provide a lecture aiming at
- Define what PIDs are
- Demonstrate the importance of PIDs
- Emphasize that PIDs are required for data and metadata to be Findable (tie in with FAIR principles)
- Show examples of PIDs within different settings (datasets, publications, people, organizations)
- Demonstrate how a PID can be created (use an example commonly used within your institute, e.g., Zenodo, DataverseNL, 4TU.ResearchData)
20 min Beginner
0:15
Lecture LO 7

Introduction of PIDs within the FAIR framework 6/7
The trainer would provide a lecture aiming at
- Define what PIDs are
- Demonstrate the importance of PIDs
- Emphasize that PIDs are required for data and metadata to be Findable (tie in with FAIR principles)
- Show examples of PIDs within different settings (datasets, publications, people, organizations)
- Demonstrate how a PID can be created (use an example commonly used within your institute, e.g., Zenodo, DataverseNL, 4TU.ResearchData)
20 min Beginner
0:35
Lecture LO 8

Introduction of PIDs within the FAIR framework 7/7
The trainer would provide a lecture aiming at
- Define what PIDs are
- Demonstrate the importance of PIDs
- Emphasize that PIDs are required for data and metadata to be Findable (tie in with FAIR principles)
- Show examples of PIDs within different settings (datasets, publications, people, organizations)
- Demonstrate how a PID can be created (use an example commonly used within your institute, e.g., Zenodo, DataverseNL, 4TU.ResearchData)
20 min Intermediate

0:55 End of phase · 155 min

0:00
Group activity LO 9

Highlighting how PIDs are connected to their research, OS policies, funder requirements, long-term preservation, collaborations with partners, etc. 1/2
- Ask participants to think about the types of outputs or entities involved in their research, for example:
  
  datasets
  
  publications
  
  software or code
  
  protocols or workflows
  
  researchers (themselves or collaborators)
  
  institutions or projects
- Discuss:
  
  Which of these outputs already have persistent identifiers?
  
  Which ones could or should have one but currently do not?
- Reflect
  
  How could PIDs help when sharing data with collaborators?
  
  How could they help others find, cite, or reuse their work?
  
  Are there any funder or institutional requirements/guidelines related to PIDs?
1 min Intermediate
0:01
Group activity LO 10

Highlighting how PIDs are connected to their research, OS policies, funder requirements, long-term preservation, collaborations with partners, etc. 2/2
- Ask participants to think about the types of outputs or entities involved in their research, for example:
  
  datasets
  
  publications
  
  software or code
  
  protocols or workflows
  
  researchers (themselves or collaborators)
  
  institutions or projects
- Discuss:
  
  Which of these outputs already have persistent identifiers?
  
  Which ones could or should have one but currently do not?
- Reflect
  
  How could PIDs help when sharing data with collaborators?
  
  How could they help others find, cite, or reuse their work?
  
  Are there any funder or institutional requirements/guidelines related to PIDs?
1 min Expert

0:02 End of phase · 2 min

Summary of tasks and actions

Present an example where disambiguation is needed (e.g. two authors with the same name). Identify additional entities that might benefit from being assigned a PID (e.g. research data, text publication, institutions). Finally, define PIDs together.
Present widely-used PIDs and how their syntax can look like: * DOI * ORCID * ROR * DMP-ID * IGSN ID * RAiD * More are available within FAIRsharing’s identifier schema sub-registry
Examples of use cases * Data repositories
- Example of actionable PID (= resolver + PID):
- Resolver: https://dx.doi.org/
  - DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3333025
- Resolve to the landing page of the repository showing metadata: https://zenodo.org/record/3333025. “Real” data can be downloaded from this page.
  - Enabling compute workflows (e.g. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.12168.1)
  - Identifying (chunks) of code
Show the importance of PIDs for FAIR data by referring to the FAIR elements mentioned in the section “FAIR element(s)”.
How to use PIDs to access research data and other resources? * Dataset (e.g. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3333025) * Text publication (e.g. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6674301) * Data management plan (e.g. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5995707) * Physical sample (e.g. IGSN ID: AU1243) * Resource descriptions (e.g.Databases, standards, policies) through FAIRsharing DOIs e.g. Dryad https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.wkggtx * Organisations (https://ror.org/) - ROR IDs and associated incl metadata and parent-child relationships e.g. Harvard https://ror.org/03vek6s52 * Research project
Explain how to receive a PID for research outputs * Repositories (e.g. Zenodo) * PID minting
Show that proper use of PIDs supports collaboration across facilities, disciplines, institutions and countries. Examples: * Pesant, S. et al. Open science resources for the discovery and analysis of Tara Oceans data. Sci. Data 2:150023 doi: 10.1038/sdata.2015.23 (2015) * Where PIDs are used for terminologies (e.g. ontologies), they allow unambiguous naming/labelling of things, which in term allows for useful/practical data sharing/integrating and, for instance, knowledge graphs.
Provenance and versioning (see R1.2) * Define resource and metadata provenance. * Explain why provenance information is an important aspect of FAIR data. * Find out together how PIDs can contribute to provenance. * Define dataset versioning and dynamic datasets. * Explain how PIDs are used in relation to different versions of a dataset or dynamic datasets. * Versioning exercise.
Introduce PID graphs and explain their importance with a use case (e.g. of use cases can be found 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+)

Materials and equipment

Personal computer
- Internet connection
- Browser

Persistent Identifiers: Making Research Findable and Connected

Overview

Topic, definition and scope

FAIR element(s)

References

Take home tasks/preparation

Learning outcomes

Making participants aware of the issue of missing PID

Define what a Persistent Identifier (PID) is.

Recognize common PID systems used in research (e.g., DOI, ORCID, ROR).

Explain the role of PIDs in making research outputs Findable within the FAIR principles.

Describe how PIDs help address issues such as broken links, ambiguous authorship, and inaccessible datasets.

Explain the basic structure and syntax of commonly used identifiers (e.g., DOI or ORCID).

Use a PID to locate a research output, dataset, or researcher.

Identify which type of PID should be assigned in different research scenarios (e.g., dataset, author, institution).

Analyze research scenarios to determine how missing or incorrect identifiers affect research visibility, reproducibility, and reuse.

Apply knowledge of PIDs to identify where they can be used in their own research workflows.

Lesson agenda

Before the lesson 0 activities 0 min

During the lesson 8 activities 155 min

Experiencing the issue of missing PID

Introduction of PIDs within the FAIR framework 1/7

Introduction of PIDs within the FAIR framework 2/7

Introduction of PIDs within the FAIR framework 3/7

Introduction of PIDs within the FAIR framework 4/7

Introduction of PIDs within the FAIR framework 5/7

Introduction of PIDs within the FAIR framework 6/7

Introduction of PIDs within the FAIR framework 7/7

After the lesson 2 activities 2 min

Highlighting how PIDs are connected to their research, OS policies, funder requirements, long-term preservation, collaborations with partners, etc. 1/2

Highlighting how PIDs are connected to their research, OS policies, funder requirements, long-term preservation, collaborations with partners, etc. 2/2

Summary of tasks and actions

Materials and equipment