Persistent identifiers for instruments and facilities: Current state, challenges, and opportunities

However, the use of PIDs for scientific instruments and facilities is decentralized and fragmented. This project aims to develop community-based standards, guidelines, and best practices for how and why PIDs can be assigned to facilities and instruments.

We hosted several online and in-person focus groups and discussions, cumulating in a two-day in-person workshop featuring stakeholders from a variety of organizations and disciplines, such as instrument and facilities operators, PID infrastructure providers, researchers who use instruments and facilities, journal publishers, university administrators, federal funding agencies, and information and data professionals. Our first-year efforts resulted in four main areas of interest: developing a better understanding of the current PID ecosystem; clarifying how and when PIDs could be assigned to scientific instruments and facilities; challenges and barriers involved with assigning PIDs; incentives for researchers, facility managers, and other stakeholders to encourage the use of PIDs.