Persistent Identifier

Persistent identifiers, or PIDs for short, are used for the unique and long-term identification of projects and resources. PIDs are made up of a sequence of numbers and/or letters. This unique sequence can be used to determine which URL has stored both the data and the associated metadata. It is very advantageous not to simply link to one URL, since research data is sometimes listed in different places on the Internet and accordingly under several URLs. This makes a unique identification impossible and a linking, e.g. for a publication, more difficult. Finally, easy re-use should be made possible, but this cannot be guaranteed by specifying a URL alone if the website moves or can no longer be found for other reasons. When using a PID, this problem is circumvented. Examples of PIDs are:

1. DOI (Digital Object Identifiers) --> for the unique description of data & digital objects
2. ORCiD --> for unique identification of persons (e.g. also after change of job or institute)
3. ROR ID --> for unique assignment to an organization (e.g. uniform notation for the individual organizations)