Persistent Identifiers

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Persistent Identifiers

A persistent identifier (PID) is a long-lasting, unique reference to an entity or resource, such as an organization, researcher, or research output. PIDs unambiguously identify resources and contribute to research outputs being findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). As recognized by the UNESCO in its 2021 Recommendation on Open Science, PIDs are a critical component of Open Science infrastructure.

The uses of PIDs include:

  • Appropriately recognizing researchers’ contributions (e.g., articles, peer-review activities).
  • Citing research outputs and reporting their reuse (e.g., open datasets, biological samples).
  • Tracking and connecting use of resources from different sources (e.g., grants, software).

PIDs are more than ID numbers: they are associated to metadata that describe the entities or resources reference in more detail. It is through this metadata, which is machine-readable, that PIDs connect information, relating researchers and organizations to research outputs produced or reused and sources of funding. Together, these connections allow assembling knowledge graphs and mapping research activities.

While some elements of these knowledge graphs are still emerging, others are widespread and benefit researchers even on routine tasks. For example, many grant or article submission platforms can currently retrieve information from the metadata of PIDs, reducing the amount of information researchers must input manually. Studies based in both Australia and the United Kingdom endorse the potential of PIDs to significantly reduce researchers’ administrative burden, which can consume 30-40% of their time (1,2)!

 

Adopting persistent identifiers

PIDs are only as useful as their uptake.

There are two ways to contribute to PID adoption: assigning PIDs to your own work and using others’ PIDs when appropriate, such as citing PIDs, extracting information from their metadata, and tracking reuse of research outputs.

Adopting PIDs is often automatic and straightforward. Take the example of scientific publications: most commonly, DOIs will be assigned by journals, with no input needed from authors. Yet, you can still make an impact by remembering to include this DOI when citing your article in the future. Even if you need to assign a PID yourself (e.g., create an ORCID iD), you will rarely need to make choices regarding which PID to use – best practices are for the most part well-established. However, you may still need to learn procedures relevant to your local context, e.g. how do you assign a DOI to a dataset through your institutional repository or open data sharing platform of choice.

In the sections below we cover two of the most common PIDs (ORCID iDs and DOIs) and provide practical guidance on how to adopt them in the context of the Douglas. We also present four other PIDs that are currently gaining interest, as well as recommendations for those interested in testing out novel PIDs.

Persistent identifiers for researchers: ORCID iDs

What are ORCID iDs?

ORCID® iD (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a PID that provides a long-lasting and unique reference to a specific individual, and is meant for anyone who contributes to research, scholarship, or innovation (including trainees!). ORCID iDs are unique, 16-digit identifiers that are attributed to individuals and ensure continuity upon changes in name or affiliation, differentiate between individuals with similar or identical names, and eliminate issues caused by different alphabets or naming conventions.

ORCID can also double as a centralized CV, in that ORCID iDs are connected to a reusable record of an individual’s academic trajectory, including contributions (e.g., publications, peer-reviewing activities) and professional information (e.g., affiliations, education). This record is interoperable with other platforms and with other PIDs, ensuring reliability and allowing for automation of data entry tasks. This interconnectivity increases the transparency and findability of research outputs, in line with Open Science and research data management best practices.

ORCID is community-governed, non-commercial, and allows users to make decisions regarding their privacy and the content of their record.

As of October 2022, 15 million ORCID records had been created worldwide!

How will ORCID improve your experience as a researcher?

ORCID allows you to:

  • Be acknowledged for your contributions. ORCID iDs leave no doubt whether a scientific output was authored by you, even if your name or affiliations change.
  • Automatically retrieve information from other databases to update your ORCID record. Although you can update and revise ORCID records manually, you can also allow information to be retrieved and updated automatically (e.g., when a new article is published).
  • Create a record of contributions that are otherwise hard to track. For example, ORCID allows peer-reviewing contributions to be registered and recognized.
  • Replace manually assembled CVs and publication lists. A complete ORCID record reduces the administrative and reporting burden both for immediate needs (e.g., performance evaluations) and for tracking and aggregating a researcher’s career-long contributions. The Canadian Common CV (CCV) is not yet officially integrated with ORCID; however, exporting your ORCID record can still accelerate the process of completing your CCV!
  • Automatically fill out your academic information in grant or publication submission systems. Many platforms can currently extract information from your ORCID record simply through your ORCID iD. Importing information from a single source reduces data entry tasks and potential mistakes.
  • Avoid creating usernames and passwords for individual submission system or research platforms. Some organizations accept ORCID IDs and passwords as alternative sign-in credentials, simplifying user experience.

How will using ORCID iD help your institution?

ORCID iDs provide an easy and unambiguous way of assigning research outputs to faculty members, a task that, if done manually, will only increase in complexity with the growing body of diverse research outputs such as open datasets, software, and methods. Adopting ORCID iDs is an important step toward best practices in Open Science and toward aligning with initiatives such as DORA, for it facilitates the well-deserved recognition of diverse types of scientific contributions.

Practical steps

  • Create and maintain an ORCID iD, free of charge. Anyone who participates in research can and is encouraged to create an ORCID iD, including trainees (e.g., graduate students and postdoctoral fellows).
  • Complete your ORCID record in detail, or set up automated extraction and auto updates, to fully benefit from functionalities such as exporting information to other platforms.
  • Provide your ORCID iD when given the option by submission systems or research platforms. Depending on the platform and its goals, this may allow you to login in with your ORCID credentials, import information from your ORCID record, or link your ORCID iD to resulting metadata.
Persistent identifiers for research outputs: DOIs

What are DOIs?

DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a PID that can be assigned to a physical, digital or abstract object (in contrast with ORCID iDs, which identify people). In practice, DOIs may be attributed to research outputs including journal articles, book chapters, datasets, and software (please see “Other applications of PIDs” for Grant IDs). DOIs allow research outputs to be unambiguously credited and tracked.

DOIs are accompanied by machine-readable metadata, which facilitates administrative and reporting tasks in various ways. For example, many applications can generate complete citations or publication lists when presented with DOIs. Additionally, DOIs ensure long-term findability of objects: DOIs can be resolved (i.e. redirect to the object they refer to) and are expected to do so even if objects change location. To resolve a DOI, visit this page and enter the DOI or simply add the prefix https://doi.org/ to the DOI. For example, the DOI 10.1503/jpn.220199 yields the link https://doi.org/10.1503/jpn.220199 and brings you to our Open Science position paper!

DOIs are most often acquired at the time of publication and attributed by two registration agencies: Crossref and DataCite, which are the main DOI providers for scholarly publishing (e.g., journal articles, books and pre-prints) and research data, respectively.

As of March 2024, 352 million DOIs had been created worldwide!

Practical steps

Researchers are often end-users of DOIs. Differently from ORCID iDs, which require input from researchers, DOIs will often be automatically assigned by publishing venues such as journals and open data repositories. Some considerations apply when ensuring that your research output receives a DOI or when citing research outputs:

  • Include DOIs when referencing research outputs such as datasets and publications, if available. Prefer DOIs to URLs that directly link to publishing venues – links can break, DOIs do not.
  • Verify if journals or open repositories assign DOIs when choosing publishing venues. Consult the list below for options pertinent to the Douglas.
  • Know that assigning DOIs is a good practice but remember that PIDs do not attest to the quality of research outputs, publishing venues, or any type of resources identified by them. Small publishing venues may lack the means to assign DOIs despite their best intentions, while journals otherwise overlooking best practices may nonetheless assign DOIs. Always practice due diligence.
  • Reach out for support if choosing a publishing venue that does not assign DOIs – there may be a workaround (e.g., Zenodo GitHub and OSF GitHub integrations). But do not create (i.e. invent) a DOI yourself. DOIs must be unique and registered by a registration agency.
  • Do not assign DOIs to resources that already have one – do not duplicate PIDs. However, if you have created a new version of a research output, verify how the publishing venue handles versioning (e.g., guidance available here for Zenodo).

Douglas researchers currently have the following options to assign DOIs to research outputs:

  • Peer-reviewed journals, with few exceptions, for scientific publications;
  • McGill University Dataverse, hosted on Borealis, for assigning DOIs to datasets through DataCite Canada. Visit this page for detailed guidance about the McGill University Dataverse and acceptable datasets;
  • External repositories, for assigning DOIs to various types of research outputs deposited therein. Examples include Zenodo (information about assigning DOIs here) and the Open Science Framework (OSF; information about assigning DOIs here – note that OSF currently only assigns an overarching DOI to each OSF project or project component, as opposed to individual DOIs for single research outputs hosted within the same OSF project).
Other applications of persistent identifiers

Below we present four additional PIDs that can increase the interconnectivity and openness of your research process. Some of these PIDs are still emerging and sometimes you may still be unable to fully adopt them (e.g., not all funders currently register Grant IDs). However, you can still create a positive impact by getting to know them and, whenever available, citing them when referencing external resources, initiatives, or organizations.

  • PIDs for organizations: ROR (Research Organization Registry) is a PID for research organizations, which enables tracking of their research outputs and activities. Similarly to ORCID iD for researchers, ROR eliminates differences in language or abbreviations used, and ensures continuity if organizations change names. ROR is integrated with ORCID and ROR’s records are openly available. Consult here the ROR IDs and records for:
  • PIDs for grants: Grant IDs are assigned by Crossref when funders award grants. This PID facilitates the connection of research outputs to funding information. Grant IDs are essentially DOIs but are accompanied by grant-specific metadata (e.g., award type, start date).
  • PIDs for research resources: RRID (Research Resource ID) is an emerging PID that provides unique references to research resources such as reagents, instruments, and core-facilities. RRIDs allow research resources to be appropriately cited and have the potential to increase reproducibility of Material and Methods descriptions. Our core-facilities have RRIDs:
  • PIDs for projects: RAiD (Research Activity Identifier) is an emerging PID that allows attributing a unique identifier to a research project. By aggregating different PIDs, RAiD has the potential to connect researchers, research institutions, funders, and research outputs associated with the project. RAiD is still only available in selected countries (e.g., Australia).

If you would like to explore other PIDs, a good starting point is evaluating criteria such as the technical robustness of the PID and their metadata; the sustainability, objectives, and policies of the organization behind the PID (e.g., privacy and equity considerations); and the level of support by the community and research organizations.

Training resources and opportunities

McGill library frequently offers training on Open Science practices, including on the use of PIDs such as ORCID. Please consult their calendar for the next scheduled events.

Visit the PID webpage of the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN), which is leading the development of a national PID strategy, to learn about current initiatives surrounding the use of PIDs in Canada and for support with infrastructural initiatives. The CRKN has additionally recorded a webinar series about PIDs in partnership with CARL-Portage and Research Data Canada: “The Who, What, and Where of Persistent Identifiers: A six-part webinar series devoted to all things PID“.

For an introduction to PIDs and particularly to the Canadian context, we recommend “Persistent Identifiers as Open Research Infrastructure to Reduce Administrative Burden”, by Lisa Goddard, University of Victoria.

Need help?

Douglas Research Centre

The Douglas Open Science Team can provide information about the use and choice of PIDs.

McGill University

The McGill Library provides assistance with creating and using ORCID accounts and with using the McGill University Dataverse repository, which assigns DOIs to hosted datasets.