Failed PIDs and Unreliable PID Implementations

This case study is part of a series that has been produced within the study on “Risks and Trust in pursuit of a well-functioning PID infrastructure for research” commissioned by the Knowledge Exchange in July 2021. The main outcome of this work is a report examining the current PID landscape with an emphasis on its risks and trust-related issues. The case study explores what happens if organizations providing and managing PIDs are unreliable. It examines issues around risk and trust, the importance of a committed organization and contingency plans. The report, Building the Plane as We Fly It: the Promise of Persistent Identifiers, and remaining complementary case studies have also been published

Some reflections on the current PID landscape – with an emphasis on risks and trust issues

The current landscape around persistent identifiers (PIDs) keeps quickly evolving. Some PIDs like Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for publications and datasets or ORCIDs (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) for persistent author identification are already well-established, but there is also a whole additional range of emerging identifiers in the research area, often being implemented under competing approaches. These include among others identifiers for organisations (OrgIDs), for research grants (grantIDs), and projects (RAIDs), for research equipment and facilities (PIDINSTs) and for physical samples (IGSNs). This is then a timely moment to explore the risks and trust-related issues associated with an ever wider implementation of PIDs. Following an earlier work on ‘risks and trust in pursuit of a well-functioning Persistent Identifier infrastructure for research’ conducted by the Knowledge Exchange (KE) Task & Finish Group on PIDs, the KE commissioned a study in July 2021 to look deeper into these issues. This work, undertaken by the signatories of this paper, will result in the publication of a report and a series of case studies on specific areas of current PID development. At the time the CRIS2022 Conference takes place the work is still underway, but already advanced enough to describe its methodology, early findings, landscape analysis and early recommendations. The full project results are expected to be published by the KE by the end of 2022

Building The Plane as We Fly It : The Promise of Persistent Identifiers

This report is the main outcome of a study commissioned by Knowledge Exchange (KE). The study was aimed at investigating “Risks and trust in pursuit of a well functioning Persistent Identifier infrastructure for research”. The investigation set out to analyse the current state of the Persistent Identifier (PID) landscape in the six Knowledge Exchange partner countries and beyond, taking emerging PIDs particularly into account and examining the roles of relevant stakeholders as PID service providers, higher education institutions, researchers, publishers and national libraries. The report examines the PID landscape and provides a detailed look at what can go wrong with an unreliable PID service. In addition, a series of recommendations aimed at each stakeholder group are presented. Seven complementary case studies accompany the report, helping provide a deeper insight into specific areas of activity, workflows and stakeholders within this wider PID landscape. Each can be accessed through the report

The Role of Research Funders in the Consolidation of the PID Landscape

This case study is part of a series that has been produced within the study on “Risks and Trust in pursuit of a well-functioning PID infrastructure for research” commissioned by the Knowledge Exchange in July 2021. The main outcome of this work will be a report examining the current PID landscape with an emphasis on its risks and trust-related issues. This initial case study aims to explore the key role research funders are expected to play in the gradual adoption of an ever wider range of PIDs across European countries. The study examines matters such as the endorsement of PIDs by research funders and opportunities for cross-funder collaboration. In addition it looks at the potential differences in the technical workflows for PID adoption among others. The report, Building the Plane as We Fly It: the promise of Persistent Identifiers, and remaining complementary case studies have now been published

Some reflections on the current PID landscape – with an emphasis on risks and trust issues

The current landscape around persistent identifiers (PIDs) keeps quickly evolving. Some PIDs like Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for publications and datasets or ORCIDs (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) for persistent author identification are already well-established, but there is also a whole additional range of emerging identifiers in the research area, often being implemented under competing approaches. These include among others identifiers for organisations (OrgIDs), for research grants (grantIDs), and projects (RAIDs), for research equipment and facilities (PIDINSTs) and for physical samples (IGSNs). This is then a timely moment to explore the risks and trust-related issues associated with an ever wider implementation of PIDs. Following an earlier work on ‘risks and trust in pursuit of a well-functioning Persistent Identifier infrastructure for research’ conducted by the Knowledge Exchange (KE) Task & Finish Group on PIDs, the KE commissioned a study in July 2021 to look deeper into these issues. This work, undertaken by the signatories of this paper, will result in the publication of a report and a series of case studies on specific areas of current PID development. At the time the CRIS2022 Conference takes place the work is still underway, but already advanced enough to describe its methodology, early findings, landscape analysis and early recommendations. The full project results are expected to be published by the KE by the end of 2022

Persistent Identifiers for Research Instruments and Facilities : An Emerging PID Domain in Need of Coordination

This case study is part of a series that has been produced within the study on “Risks and Trust in pursuit of a well-functioning PID infrastructure for research” commissioned by the Knowledge Exchange in July 2021. The main outcome of this work is a report examining the current PID landscape with an emphasis on its risks and trust-related issues. The case study aims to explore the challenges faced and the opportunities offered by the gradual implementation of emerging PIDs. The main focus of this case study is on persistent identifiers for research instruments and facilities but the analysis addresses emerging PID infrastructure and therefore has links to other PID areas like persistent identifiers for conferences (ConfIDs) and – to a certain extent – to PIDs addressed in other case studies such as IGSNs for samples and ROR IDs for organisational identifiers. The report, Building the Plane as We Fly It: the Promise of Persistent Identifiers, and remaining complementary case studies have also been published

RePEc Author Service : An Established Community-driven PID

This case study is part of a series that has been produced within the study on “Risks and Trust in pursuit of a well-functioning PID infrastructure for research” commissioned by the Knowledge Exchange in July 2021. The main outcome of this work is a report examining the current PID landscape with an emphasis on its risks and trust-related issues. The case study looks at the RePEc Author Service (RAS), an independent community owned and run DAI service within Economics. Established before ORCID emerged, RAS survives on the basis of low running costs, various sponsors, and volunteers. It demonstrates how community-trust, accepting uncertainty around sustainability and governance, can help a PID service run for a long time. The report, Building the Plane as We Fly It: the Promise of Persistent Identifiers, and remaining complementary case studies have also been published

IGSN – Building and Expanding a Community-driven PID System

This case study is part of a series that has been produced within the study on “Risks and Trust in pursuit of a well-functioning PID infrastructure for research” commissioned by the Knowledge Exchange in July 2021. The main outcome of this work is a report examining the current PID landscape with an emphasis on its risks and trust-related issues. The case study explores the International Generic Sample Number (IGSN) and its development. It aims to help explain how the PID system itself develops by bringing up new PIDs through community services. The interviews conducted give further insight into how IGSN helps the research community. The report, Building the Plane as We Fly It: the Promise of Persistent Identifiers, and remaining complementary case studies have also been published

The Gradual Implementation of Organisational Identifiers (OrgIDs)

This case study is part of a series that has been produced within the study on “Risks and Trust in pursuit of a well-functioning PID infrastructure for research” commissioned by the Knowledge Exchange in July 2021. The main outcome of this work is a report examining the current PID landscape with an emphasis on its risks and trust-related issues. This case study provides insight into the process that led to selecting the Research Organization Registry (ROR) – initially based on the Digital Science Global Research Identifier (GRID) database – as the default international framework for the provision of OrgIDs. Insight into the challenges triggered by current developments are also addressed. The report, Building the Plane as We Fly It: the Promise of Persistent Identifiers, and remaining complementary case studies have also been published