Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) and their infrastructures are of significant strategic importance to the increasingly digital reality of modern-day research. To better understand what is needed to build and exploit a well-functioning PID infrastructure for research, Knowledge Exchange (KE) conducted an in-depth investigation on PIDs, with the aim of producing recommendations for those stakeholders involved.
A scoping document was written by experts of the Task & Finish Group for PIDs Risks &Trust and a call for bids on further investigations resulted in a team of consultants taking on the assignment ‘to identify the best possible strategic and operational paths to achieve a well-functioning PID infrastructure for KE member states and beyond.'
The role of Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) within modern-day research has been explored and analysed and recommendations identified, making use of the KE Open Scholarship Framework as well as the notions of Risk and Trust.
The study includes a literature review on the main characteristics of PIDs and an analysis of interviews with a variety of actors, ranging from PID Managers, Owners and Users to PID Authorities and Providers.
The results from this work are increased understanding of the PID landscape, a set of use cases, and recommendations to improve the PID infrastructure. The published report, Building the plane as we fly it: the promise of Persistent Identifiers, and complementary case studies provide answers to the following questions:
- What are the benefits of an efficient PID infrastructure, how does it contribute to an open infrastructure and how is this a precondition for research communities impending research agendas?
- What are important risk and trust issues that key players involved in the PID infrastructure face and what can go wrong with an unreliable PID service?
- What recommendations can be made for key stakeholder groups?
For further information and to access the report and case studies click here.
The Task & Finish Group for PIDs Risk and Trust
The activity is led by KE representatives Frank Manista (Jisc) and Josefine Nordling (CSC). The Task & Finish Group for this activity consists of experts from across each of the six KE partner countries:
- Rene Belsø (Expert Lead), DeiC, Denmark
- Martin Matthiesen (Expert Co-lead), CSC, Finland
- Pascal Aventurier, IRD, France
- Nathalie Fargier, CNRS, France
- Gaëlle Béquet, ISSN, France
- Jessica Parland-von Essen, CSC, Finland
- Clifford Tatum, CWTS, Netherlands
- Laurents Sesink, Leiden University, Netherlands
- Gül Akcaova, SURF, Netherlands
- Stephanie Palek, Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, Germany
- Jürgen Kett, Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, Germany
- Britta Dreyer, Technische Informationsbibliothek, Germany
- Adam Vials Moore, Jisc, UK
- Hilda Muchando, Human Made / ALTIS, UK
- Kirsty Wallis, University College London, UK
The Consultants
A team of consultants were appointed by KE to support this work:
- Ulrich Herb (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3500-3119)
- Pablo de Castro (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6300-1033)
- Laura Rothfritz (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7525-0635)
- Joachim Schöpfel (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4000-807X)
