Terms like Digital Object Identifier (DOI), OCID, International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI) are common in academic community. These all are Persistent Identifiers (PIDs).

What is Persistent identifier (PID)?

A PID (Persistent Identifier) helps to identify and locate an entity regardless of its hosting or publication location, ensuring its clear and lasting identification. PIDs play a crucial role in the research ecosystem by connecting researchers and their research outputs to the underlying data and related metadata.

Persistent Identifier includes two words, Persistent refers to anything which is long lasting, unbreakable and reliable. An identifier is a label which gives a unique name to an entity: a person, place, or thing.

As described in The Digital Preservation Handbook "A persistent identifier is a long-lasting reference to a digital resource. Typically it has two components: a unique identifier; and a service that locates the resource over time even when it's location changes. The first helps to ensure the provenance of a digital resource ( that it is what it purports to be), whilst the second will ensure that the identifier resolves to the correct current location."

The examples of PIDs include

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): It is a persistent identifiers for things or entities such as journal articles, books, and datasets. Crossref and DataCite are the main organizations assigning DOIs for these purposes in scholarly communication.

OCID: a free, unique, persistent identifier (PID) for individuals. An ORCID iD is an example of a persistent identifier for a person. ORCID works closely with Crossref, DataCite and many other PID organizations to build trusted connections between ORCID iDs and other identifiers.

International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI): This identifier provides information about the institution where a researcher worked while the research was undertaken.

Importance of PIDs in the scholarly system

Discoverability: PIDs such as DOIs, ORCID iDs, RRIDs, ROR IDs, and Funder IDs make data more easily discoverable by providing unique, permanent identifiers.

Accessibility: PIDs link research outputs to their underlying data and associated metadata, making it easier to discover and access research data.

Interoperability: Incorporating PIDs in research outputs ensures that data follows established standards, making it more interoperable with existing and future systems.

Reusability: PIDs facilitate the reuse of research data or protocols by enabling researchers to easily cite and credit the sources of their data and protocols.

Machine-Actionable Data: PIDs enable data to be processed and understood by machines or software, enhancing the efficiency of data and metadata processing.

Reproducibility and Transparency: PIDs play a critical role in ensuring the reproducibility and transparency of research data by enabling researchers to uniquely identify and cite their research resources.

Integration of Data: PIDs facilitate the integration of data from multiple sources, enabling researchers to make new discoveries that would not be possible without PIDs.

FAIR Data Principles: By incorporating PIDs in their research outputs, researchers contribute to making their data more Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR data principles) as required by many funders and publishers.

Open Data Ecosystem: PIDs support the open data ecosystem by ensuring the unique identification, citation, and linking of research outputs to their underlying data and associated metadata.

DataCite Commons and power of PID

DataCite Commons was developed as part of the EC-funded project Frey. The users of the DataCite Commons will have easier access to information about the use of their DOIs and can discover and track connections between their DOIs and other entities and also shows the connections between content with DOIs and people, research organizations, and funders that are together called the PID Graph of scholarly resources identified via persistent identifiers (PIDs) and connected in standard ways.

Recent advances in (PIDs) and their application in scholarly communication

Creating an ANSI/NISO standard to enhance utility of PIDs in scholarly system

Recently in a report of the Open Research Funders Group “Developing a US National PID Strategy” in March 2024. It highlighted that a strategy is required to build support for PIDs, increase their adoption, and help stakeholders incorporate them into workflows and systems more easily. Based on the principles addressed in the report while also further developing other elements, this Working Group will create a standard for advancing PIDs and open scholarship.

Finally, Research Data Alliance-United States (RDA-US) has collaborated with the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) to develop a US national PID strategy. This initiative aims to create an ANSI/NISO standard. The Standard will guide the adoption and integration of PIDs in research workflows. By doing so, it seeks to build support for PIDs, streamline their implementation, and enhance their utility across the scholarly ecosystem.

RDA-US will contribute expertise in PID implementation and community engagement, while NISO will oversee the Working Group’s operations and coordination. Leaders from both organizations express confidence that this initiative will significantly strengthen the US research infrastructure by providing clear guidance on PID adoption.

This collaboration underscores the growing recognition of PIDs as critical tools for ensuring the integrity, accessibility, and interoperability of research outputs in an increasingly digital and interconnected world.

The DOI for Scholarly Publishing: winner of the Rosenblum Award for Scholarly Publishing Impact

NISO in association with The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP), the Association of University Presses (AUPresses), the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP), and the International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers (STM) has recently in February of this year announced the Rosenblum Award for Scholarly Publishing Impact. Named in honor of Bruce Rosenblum, the award celebrates innovations that have transformed the scholarly publishing ecosystem, focusing on technologies, standards, or practices that have become indispensable to its operation, and its inaugural winner is the DOI for Scholarly Publishing. Bruce Rosenblum was known for his expertise in developing Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and championing XML standards. He played a critical role in the development of the JATS and STS standards and advocated for persistent identifiers, semantic tagging, high-quality metadata, and industry standards.

Since its adoption by Crossref, the DOI for Scholarly Publishing has been critical for ensuring research objects are discoverable, even if web structures change or content moves. DOI metadata facilitates other information management systems such as holdings and appropriate-copy resolution via related standards like OpenURL. DOI metadata facilitates other information management systems such as holdings and appropriate-copy resolution via related standards like OpenURL.

The initiative involved collaboration by five sponsoring organizations: NISO, ALPSP, AUPresses, SSP, and STM. The Award Governance Committee is made up of leaders from these organizations, and there are representatives forming the Award Planning and Piloting Committee.

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