Persistent Identifier

A Persistent Identifier (PID) is a durable reference to a digital dataset, document, website or other object. In the context of research data and software, it is essentially a URL that will never break. By using a Persistent Identifier, you make sure that your dataset will be findable well into the future when it is registered online (for example at DataCite. Another advantage is that it makes a digital object citable.

Multiple PID systems

There are multiple PID systems, each with its own particular properties. Examples of widely used PIDs in the research domain include the following.

See the Persistent Identifier guide of Netwerk Digitaal Erfgoed for a more elaborate overview. Apart from widely used domain-agnostic PIDs, there is a wide range of domain-specific unique identifiers that can be used. If you are interested in domain-specific identifiers, it is useful to ask colleagues in your department or discipline.

Persistent Identifiers for data and software in repositories

Persistent Identifiers can be assigned to datasets and software upon their deposit in a repository. In many repositories, this is a DOI. Data repositories are entitled to generate Persistent Identifiers for data and software. This is one of the reasons why archiving and publishing data and software has to be done in a repository. After the process of uploading data or software to a repository, a Persistent Identifier will be generated. Upon publishing the data or software, the DOI is registered online (usually at DataCite when it concerns a dataset).

Some repositories enable their users to reserve a Persistent Identifier before the publishing process has finished, so that you can include the Persistent Identifier in a publication before the data will be actually published, or to include the Persistent Identifier in a readme file. This is for example possible in Zenodo.

The repositories offered by VU Amsterdam, Yoda and DataverseNL provide DOIs for deposited datasets and software.

Creating and using an ORCiD

Researchers can use an ORCiD to identify their research output as their work. You can request an ORCiD yourself. Instructions for setting up an ORCiD and connecting it to your VU research profile in PURE are available in this ORCiD LibGuide. An ORCiD is often asked for when you submit a publication or upload data or software to a repository. You can use your ORCiD record to create a research profile as well.

Using a ROR

Researchers can use the ROR for VU Amsterdam when filling metadata forms for their research output to show that their work has been created within their employment at VU Amsterdam.