{"id":5256,"date":"2023-03-07T15:03:54","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T21:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/?p=5256"},"modified":"2023-06-05T15:29:31","modified_gmt":"2023-06-05T20:29:31","slug":"the-power-of-persistent-identifiers-in-data-sharing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/2023\/03\/07\/the-power-of-persistent-identifiers-in-data-sharing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Persistent Identifiers in Data Sharing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every researcher has likely seen Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs)<\/a> attached to the articles they read, cite, and publish. As unique codes that distinguish a specific research article, dataset, or other digital object, DOIs make it much easier to find and cite the work of other scholars. What you may not know, however, is that DOIs are just one type of persistent identifier (PID). PIDs make your research findable now and in the future, reusable for the long term, and offer new insights into your research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PIDs, sometimes referred to as persistent digital identifiers<\/em> (PDIs) or globally unique identifiers<\/em> (GUIDs) take many different forms. You may have seen an Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID)<\/a> attached to someone\u2019s email signature, or a Research Resource ID (RRID)<\/a> in a journal article identifying a specific antibody used in the study, or even an International Standard Book Number (ISBN)<\/a> in a book you\u2019ve read. All of these are PIDs, but don\u2019t let the alphabet soup of initials intimidate you. In essence, all persistent identifiers have two traits that make them powerful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first is the part you see and use: the string of letters and\/or numbers that uniquely define an entity (like an article, researcher, dataset, or institution). These codes will not change, will not be reused, and are a major reason finding information is so easy with PIDs. The second part of a PID is behind the scenes: the service that locates the resource (or \u201cresolves\u201d it) if its URL changes, ensuring that people who use the PID can always access what they\u2019re looking for. This means, for instance, that even if the URL for an article changes the DOI never will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s an example: When a researcher deposits their dataset in the University of Iowa\u2019s institutional repository, Iowa Research Online (IRO)<\/a>, a DOI for the dataset is reserved. A data librarian at UI Libraries will then review and curate the data<\/a>. When the creator of the dataset gives the green light, IRO will register the dataset, its corresponding metadata, and the DOI with an organization called DataCite<\/a>, activating the DOI and telling DataCite the landing page for the dataset (i.e., the URL that describes the data and provides access to the files). If IRO reorganized its servers in the future and the URL of the landing page changed, IRO would update this \u201caddress change\u201d with DataCite. This ensures that the DOI will still point people to the new, correct URL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The image below demonstrates how the DOI for a dataset resolves to the specific URL in IRO.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Diagram<\/a>
Image adapted from: Nos\u00e9, M. (2019). \u201cPractice of research data management in solar-terrestrial physics [PowerPoint Slides]. Institute for Space-Earth Environment Research, Nagoya University. https:\/\/slideplayer.com\/slide\/17406586\/<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Another important benefit of using persistent identifiers is connection: linking the digital object to everything else that\u2019s associated with it through PIDs, like the people who contributed to the work (through ORCIDs), the places they work (through Research Organization Registry IDs, or RORs<\/a>), the cell lines they used in the research process (through RRIDs), and articles that use the data (through DOIs). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PIDs thus create a stable network of linked data that makes research outputs more FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable)<\/a>, helping people find new connections between data, articles, researchers, institutions, and granting bodies. A researcher who finds your dataset might then be curious if you\u2019re the same person who wrote an article on a similar topic they read in a journal. This might lead them to click your ORCID to discover other research you\u2019ve done, pointing them to the DOI of another dataset you\u2019ve published, which they discover they could use for their own project. This discovery was facilitated by PIDs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The image below offers an example of how PIDs connect these different entities.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Diagram<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

You can do a few things to make the most of PIDs and leverage these connections:<\/p>\n\n\n\n