Review:
Persistent Identifiers (e.g., Dois For Datasets)
overall review score: 4.5
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score is between 0 and 5
Persistent identifiers, such as Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), are stable, long-term references assigned to digital objects like datasets, articles, or other research outputs. They ensure that even if the location or hosting of the associated data changes over time, the identifier remains a reliable link for citation, retrieval, and attribution.
Key Features
- Uniqueness: Each identifier is unique to its designated object.
- Persistence: Designed to function long-term regardless of data location changes.
- Interoperability: Compatible across systems and platforms for seamless referencing.
- Standardization: Often governed by international standards providing reliability.
- Metadata Integration: Usually linked with rich metadata describing the digital object.
- Persistent Resolution: Can be resolved through dedicated resolver services to locate current data locations.
Pros
- Provides reliable and long-term access to digital objects.
- Facilitates proper citation and attribution in academic and professional contexts.
- Supports data reproducibility and verification in research.
- Helps in managing large datasets by offering a stable reference system.
- Widely adopted in scholarly publishing and data repositories.
Cons
- Requires maintenance of resolver infrastructure to ensure persistence.
- Associated costs and administrative overhead for assigning and managing identifiers.
- Potential for misuse or linking errors if not properly managed.
- Over-reliance on identifiers might obscure actual data management practices.