Summary

Persistent identifiers of research objects used in academia

The research ecosystem (academia) needs to unambiguously identify things and people. This has been done for centuries (e.g. taxonomy for naming and classifying organisms) and has now moved into the digital realm with the creation of Persistent Identifiers (PIDs).

Researchers need to unambiguously assign globally unique identifiers that will persist even as the underlying resource changes location (a PID). An example PID is a digital object identifier (DOI) based on the Handle system which is assigned to a specific paper. The URL of the resource may change as the publisher changes their website, but the DOI should always resolve to the correct paper.

The research ecosystem will benefit when more objects are given identifiers, but with the current centralized system it is very challenging to add new types of resources as it requires global cooperation and establishment of another type of identifier (including a new funding model).

With the creation of decentralized identifiers (DIDs), researchers can create an identifier ecosystem where a persistent identifier to a research object is a DID, recorded on a ledger that is controlled by the community. It is an opportunity for research to create an identifier ecosystem that is decentralized, flexible, interoperable with existing identifiers,l and with full provenance thus enhancing research reproducibility.

Use case 1

A researcher is registered into the research identifier ecosystem

Triggering event	A researcher wants to be able to create identifiers in the research identifier ecosystem. They need to do the appropriate setup to be able to create identifiers.
Actors	Researcher
Preconditions	Researcher meets governance requirements to participate in the research identifier ecosystem The researcher has the appropriate credential (if needed) that allows them to create a DID
Post conditions	The researcher is able to create identifiers
Scenario	The researcher generates a private/public key pair that will let them sign identifiers.
Alternate scenario
Related use case
Notes

Use case 2

A researcher creates an identifier

Triggering event	A researcher has a research object and they want to create a DID for their object
Actors	Researcher
Preconditions	The researcher has the ability to create an identifier within the research
Post conditions	The researcher creates a DID for their research object
Scenario	The researcher uses their credentials (if necessary) and creates a DID for their research object on the research identifier ecosystem infrastructure. They are able to control the DID using their private key.
Alternate scenario
Related use case
Notes

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