Designated Community: Uncertainty and Risk

Purpose: This article explores the tension between the concept of a Designated Community as a foundational element in Trustworthy Digital Repository certification and curators’ uncertainty about how to interpret and apply this concept in practice. Design/methodology/approach: This research employs a qualitative research design involving in-depth semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in the Trustworthy Digital Repository Audit and Certification process. Findings: Our findings indicate that stakeholders in the audit and certification process viewed their uncertainty about how to apply the concept of a Designated Community in the context of an audit as a source of risk for digital repositories and their collections. Originality: This article brings new insights to digital preservation by applying social theories of risk to trustworthy digital repository audit and certification processes, with an emphasis on the concept of Designated Community

The Role of Universities in the Implementation of Persistent Identifiers (PIDs)

Le rapport intitulé « Building the plane as we fly it : the promise of persistent identifiers » était publié en février dernier par le Knowledge Exchange. Le rapport explore les défis, les possibilités, les risques et les problèmes liés à la confiance associés à la DIP en mettant l’accent sur le Danemark, la Finlande, la France,l’Allemagne, les Pays-Bas et le Royaume-Uni. Des études ont été publiées parallèlement à ce rapport examinant plus en profondeur la DIP actuelle

Adoption of the DAI in The Netherlands and Subsequent Superseding by ORCID/ISNI

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 Dutch Digital Author Identifier (DAI). It explains the importance of contingency management and community involvement to successfully address risks and trust issues for a well-functioning PID landscape. 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

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

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

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

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

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