The Role of Universities in the Implementation of Persistent Identifiers (PIDs)

The report “Building the plane as we fly it: the promise of persistent identifiers” was published last February by the Knowledge Exchange. The report explores the challenges, opportunities, risks and trust-related issues associated with the quickly-developing PID landscape with an emphasis on the six KE member countries (Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands and the United Kingdom). A series of seven complementary case studies were published alongside this report examining more in depth the current PID landscape for specific entities such as authors, organisations, instruments and facilities, grants and projects or physical samples. The report summarises the findings of a series of interviews with PID experts that provided the basis for the study. Sets of recommendations are also provided for a range of relevant stakeholders in the PID implementation domain. The current fragmentation of the PID landscape is one of the main challenges highlighted in the report and the case studies. This contribution provides a summary of the findings of this study and analyses this fragmented PID landscape in some detail, specifically exploring the meaning of “community” in expressions like “a community-driven PID landscape”. The role universities are expected to play in the gradual, unstoppable adoption of a wide range of PIDs is laid out, together with some early best practices in the domain.