Persistent identifiers (sometimes called PIDs) unambiguously identify research materials, people, and institutions by providing a permanent web address for them. Typically consisting of a unique string of numbers and/or letters – which can stand on their own or be used to create a live web link – these identifiers can be used in all kinds of research platforms to facilitate discovery and connections. They can also be included in citations within scholarly works, for example in a bibliography or references list.
Persistent identifiers offer stability on an ever-changing Internet. Think of it like microchipping a pet: even if the digital location or the name of the object changes, if you have the PID (which is both a link and also an identifier), you’ll be able to find the object. Along with the identifier itself, PIDs typically come with associated metadata: contextual information about the resource such as title or name, creator, description, and more.
By registering your research and scholarship with a DOI service, creating an ORCID iD for yourself, snapshotting a website using Perma.cc, or using another one of the myriad PIDs out there, you both add information about you and your work to an interconnected research discovery infrastructure and ensure that others can access your scholarship and research materials in the long term.
