Lesson plan 8: Persistent identifiers (PIDs)

FAIR elements:

Findable

The first step in (re)using data is to find them. Metadata and data should be easy to find for both humans and computers. Machine-readable metadata are essential for automatic discovery of datasets and services, making this an essential component of the FAIRification process.

F1. (Meta)data are assigned a globally unique and persistent identifier

F2. Data are described with rich metadata (defined by R1 below)

F3. Metadata clearly and explicitly include the identifier of the data they describe

F4. (Meta)data are registered or indexed in a searchable resource

Accessible

Once the user finds the required data, they need to know how they can be accessed, possibly including authentication and authorisation.

A1. (Meta)data are retrievable by their identifier using a standardised communications protocol

A1.1. The protocol is open, free, and universally implementable

A1.2. The protocol allows for an authentication and authorisation procedure, where necessary

A2. Metadata are accessible, even when the data are no longer available

Primary audience(s): Bachelor's, master's, PhD degree students

Learning outcomes:

• Can recognise PIDs and explain the different use cases for PIDs

• Can explain the importance of PIDs for FAIR data

• Understands the PID syntax

• Can use PIDs to access data or other resources

• Can apply PIDs to their own research outputs

• Can use PIDs to collaborate with others

• Knows about provenance and versioning of data

• Optional: knows PID graphs

Summary of tasks/actions:

1. Provide a use case to show the importance of persistent identifiers (PIDs). Define the problem, e.g. different scenarios where digital objects may have the same or similar names, such as different versions or authors – disambiguate; also for findability and accessibility of data – can be resolved by web browsers, etc. and are actionable

   1. Identify different entities that can be assigned a PID, e.g. people, data, and institutions

   2. Define together what persistent identifiers are

   3. Explain the difference between persistent identifiers and authority files

2. Show the different types of PIDs and how their syntax can look:

   1. DOI

   2. Crossref

   3. ORCID

   4. ROR

   5. RAID

   6. other

3. Explain how to receive a PID

   1. Repositories

   2. PID minting

4. Show provenance as an important aspect of FAIR data

   1. Resource provenance

   2. Metadata provenance

   3. How can PIDs contribute to provenance?

5. How are PIDs used in relation to different versions of a dataset or dynamic datasets?

   1. Versioning exercise

6. Introduce PID graphs and their importance

   1. Explain the importance of PID graphs with a use case (real use cases can be found here: https://github.com/datacite/freya/issues?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22PID+Graph%22++label%3A%22user+story%22+

Materials/Equipment

• Computer/laptop

• Internet/browser

References

• https://datacite.org/dois.html

• https://search.crossref.org/

• https://www.doi.org/

• https://orcid.org/

• https://ror.org/

• https://www.raid.org.au/

• FAIRsharing list of community-used identifier schemas

• Ball, A., & Duke, M. (2015). How to Cite Datasets and Link to Publications DCC How-to Guides. Edinburgh: Digital Curation Centre. Available online: http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/how-guides

• RDA recommendations: https://www.rd-alliance.org/system/files/RDA-DC-Recommendations_151020.pdf

• https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3311790.3396660

• https://librarycarpentry.org/lc-fair-research/02-findable/index.html

• Research Data Netherlands. (2014). Persistent identifiers and data citation explained [Video]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/PgqtiY7oZ6k

• Martin Fenner, Joe Wass, Tom Demeranville, Sarala Wimalaratne, & Richard Hallett. (2019). D2.2 PID Metadata Provenance. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3248652

• Introducing the PID Graph. https://doi.org/10.5438/jwvf-8a66

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