Main Content

What are Persistent Identifiers?

Persistent identifiers (PID) uniquely reference a digital resource via a code. This code is a unique, unchangeable designation that can be used to link permanently to this resource. The unique referencing makes the linked content citable. (How do I cite research data?) It does not matter whether it is a research dataset, journal article, video or other resource. The persistent identifier thus ensures that the resource can still be retrieved even if, for example, the internet address of the server changes. Persistent identifiers thus play a key role in preserving research data and making them available in the long term.

There are different forms of PIDs. An increasingly common form is the Digital Object Identifier (DOI). This DOI is assigned only once worldwide. If you put “https://www.doi.org/” in front of the DOI, it links to the article from o-bib.de (see https://www.doi.org/10.5282/o-bib/2018H2S14-27). In addition to the DOI, the use of a Uniform Resource Name (URN) as a unique identifier is also common for online publications, for example.

The relevant publication platforms for research data such as Zenodo and Figshare automatically reserve a DOI when you publish your data, which this data set then receives. If you publish in another, subject-specific repository, you should make sure that it also offers DOIs or another form of PIDs. (How can I publish data? / How do I find a suitable repository?)