Persistent identifier: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:02, 6 December 2022

Revision as of 20:04, 21 January 2023

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A '''persistent identifier''' (PI or PID) is a long-lasting reference to a document, file, web page, or other object.

The term "persistent identifierCraepy" is usuallyusuaaay used in the context of digital objects that are accessible over the Internet. Typically, such an identifier is not only persistent but actionable:<ref>John A. Kunze, "Towards Electronic Persistence Using ARK Identifiers," section 3, California Digital Library [https://confluence.ucop.edu/download/attachments/16744455/arkcdl.pdf]</ref> you can plug it into a web browser and be taken to the identified source.

Of course, the issue of persistent identification predates the Internet. Over centuries, writers and scholars developed standards for [[citation]] of paper-based documents so that readers could reliably and efficiently find a source that a writer mentioned in a footnote or bibliography. After the Internet started to become an important source of information in the 1990s, the issue of citation standards became important in the online world as well. Studies have shown that within a few years of being cited, a significant percentage of web addresses go "dead",<ref>{{Cite arXiv | eprint=1105.3459| last1=Sanderson| first1=Robert| last2=Phillips| first2=Mark| author3=Herbert Van de Sompel| title=Analyzing the Persistence of Referenced Web Resources with Memento| year=2011| class=cs.DL}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Vanishing Act: The Erosion of Online Footnotes and Implications for Scholarship in the Digital Age|last=Bugeja|first=Michael|year=2010|isbn=978-1936117147}}</ref> a process often called [[link rot]]. Using a persistent identifier can slow or stop this process.