Persistent identifier: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 13:53, 9 October 2021

Revision as of 04:50, 24 November 2022

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The term "persistent identifier" is usually 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.

An important aspect of persistent identifiers is that "persistence is purely a matter of service.".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Kunze|first1=J.|title=The ARK Identifier Scheme|url=https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-kunze-ark-18}}</ref> That means that persistent identifiers are only persistent to the degree that someone commits to resolving them for users. No identifier can be inherently persistent.

Persistent identifiers are often created within institutionally administered systems. These include:

* [[Archival Resource Key]]s (ARKs)

* [[Electronic Identifier Serial Publication]]s (EISPs)

* [[Digital Object Identifier]]s (DOIs), the [[Handle System]]

* [[International eBook Identifier Number]]s (IEINs)

* [[Persistent Uniform Resource Locator]]s (PURLs)

* [[Uniform Resource Name]]s (URNs)

* [[Extensible Resource Identifier]]s (XRIs)

* [[Magnet link]]<ref>{{cite web|title=On constructing persistent identifiers with persistent resolution targets|url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7733372|website=IEEE Conference Publication|access-date=8 April 2018}}</ref> (decentralized, with [[BitTorrent]])

However, some regular [[Uniform Resource Locator|URLs]] (i.e. web addresses), maintained by the website owner, are intended to be long-lasting; these are often called [[permalink]]s.

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== Examples ==

Persistent identifiers are often created within institutionally administered systems. These include:

Other examples of PIDs include:

People and organisations:

* [[ORCID|Open Researcher and Contributor ID]] (ORCID)

* [[Research Organization Registry]] (ROR)

Publications:

* [[Virtual International Authority File]] (VIAF)

* [[ORCID|ORCID iDs]]

* [[International Standard Name Identifier]] (ISNI)

* [[International Standard Book Number]] (ISBN)

[[Uniform Resource Identifier|Uniform Resource Identifiers]]:

* [[Digital Object Identifier]]s (DOIsDOI), the [[Handle System]]

* [[Magnet link]]<ref>{{cite web |title=On constructing persistent identifiers with persistent resolution targets |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7733372|website=IEEE Conference Publication|access-date=8 April 2018 |website=IEEE Conference Publication}}</ref> (decentralized, with [[BitTorrent]])

* [[Archival Resource Key]]s (ARKs)

* [[Uniform Resource Name]]s (URNs)

* [[Extensible Resource Identifier]]s (XRIs)

* [[Persistent Uniform Resource Locator]]s (PURLs)

==References==