Glossary
Persistent identifier (PID): an association between a sequence of characters and a specific resource. The term ‘persistent’ refers to the identifier’s role in ensuring continued access to the resource and the data associated with it for the foreseeable future. Organisations identifying resources can implement in-house PID solutions, or rely on existing PID service providers. Some of the most commonly used PIDs systems are Archival Resource Key (ARK), Digital Object Identifier (DOI), National Bibliography Numbers (NBN), Persistent Identifiers for eResearch (ePIC).
Landing page: a webpage that displays the PID, its ownership, metadata about the resource and access to the resource itself.
PID assignment: the process of associating (existing) PID with the resource it is intended to identify.
PID owner: an individual or organisation who mints (process of generating a new PID according to the (pre)defined scheme) and assigns PIDs to their resources and takes the ownership of the PIDs. They are responsible and accountable for the governance of a PID, such as keeping the information in the PID record and the landing page up to date, as well as maintaining the PID policy and ensuring compliance with the principles set by this document.
PID policy created by a PID owner: a policy specifying the conditions and scope of PID assignment and non-assignment (ie. which types of resources and granularity are covered), lifecycle and version management, indicating what information is kept available upon deprecation of the resource, as well as resolution, limitations, scheme and adherence to standards.
PID record: a machine readable record containing administrative information for the PID and a subset of the metadata of the resource that is openly available. It is used to facilitate automation of processes and interoperability within and across PID service providers, as well as other systems.
PID scheme: a comprehensive set of rules and standards defining various aspects of PIDs, such as their format and syntax. Overall, it provides a framework for ensuring the desired attributes of PIDs, like uniqueness and opacity.
PID service provider: an entity that is operating and offering PID services and infrastructure (e.g. registration, management, resolution services) for PIDs within a specific PID system, but does not typically have ownership rights over PIDs.
PID system: a framework that comprises technological infrastructure and processes designed for registering, managing and resolving PIDs.
PID user: an individual or organisation intending to use a PID to refer (or resolve) to a resource.
Resolution: mechanism through which resources are retrievable by their (persistent) identifier using a standard protocol.
Tombstone page: a variant of a landing page that informs users about the unavailability of the resource, the reasons for its unavailability and guidance for future reuse.