Open Scholarship and Open Infrastructure: “Desirable Characteristics of Persistent Identifiers”

From a New Upstream Post by John Chodacki (CDL) and Todd Carpenter (NISO):

Persistent identifiers (PIDs) in scholarly communications and research infrastructure have garnered growing attention over the last several years, especially from governments who are recognizing the vital role PIDs play in creating a more efficient and trustworthy research ecosystem. However, varying degrees of familiarity in the subject result in questions regarding the specific attributes that constitute a good PID and/or what features are most desirable in PID infrastructure. In this post, we attempt to answer these questions by exploring various guiding principles for research infrastructure that have been articulated over recent years, examining their relevance and application to the domain of PIDs. With these principles as contextual resources and guidance, we propose a set of desirable characteristics.

Background

Several countries, including Australia, Canada, Finland, Korea, the United Kingdom, and more, are at various stages of developing national PID strategies to help guide best practices in support of open scholarship and innovation. In the US, a set of recommendations entitled Developing a US National PID Strategy, utilizing the framework created by the Research Data Alliance, was created in late 2023 and early 2024 in collaboration with members of the Higher Education Leadership Initiative for Open Scholarship (HELIOS) and the Community Effort on Research Output Tracking workstreams organized by the Open Research Funders Group (ORFG). The recommendations in “Developing a US National PID Strategy” outline guidance for national research stakeholders on the use and adoption of persistent identifiers. But what are the key factors stakeholders might need to be aware of when determining when and how to implement a persistent identifier strategy? Our aim in this post is to highlight some underlying principles that should be understood and considered.

The remainder of the article is organized into the following sections:

• Overarching and guiding principles
• PID basics and applications of principles
• Desirable Characteristics of PID Infrastructure
• Conclusion

Learn More, Read the Complete Post (about 2700 words)

Filed under: Data Files, Management and Leadership, News, Scholarly Communications