RDA National PID Strategies Guide and Checklist: Final Outputs and supporting materials available

About the National PID Strategies Working Group

The National PID Strategies Working Group was endorsed to explore how Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) form part of national policy and research infrastructure implementation frameworks. The Group recognises that there are systemic and network benefits from widespread and consistent PID adoption including financial and time savings benefits. Research sector stakeholders including funders, government agencies, and national research communities have created PID consortia or policies (including mandates) in pursuit of these benefits. At the establishment of the WG, National PID Strategies were beginning to emerge in the UK, Australia, the Netherlands, and Canada as a pathway to realising these benefits and an international conversation felt needed. RDA provided an umbrella for discussion and alignment between the strategies, refinement of the value proposition and sharing practical development pathways to a national PID strategy.

The Group has now concluded its work and produced its final Outputs. See below for more information on their findings and reports. 

Findings

The findings of the 18 months of the WG have been that:

1. National PID strategies are on the rise, evidenced in the case studies collected by the WG and the growing momentum of discussions at RDA Plenaries and other international fora.
2. The development of national PID strategies is a relatively new phenomenon and many countries are in the very early stages. In fact, many have more of a national approach that they are seeking to transform into a strategy.
3. All national PID strategies are currently in development and therefore subject to a high degree of change. During the course of the WG, nine case studies were collected and several of these needed to be updated prior to the Group’s final output due to changes that had taken place in those countries.
4. There is no single ‘cookie cutter’ approach to developing a national PID strategy. Critical components include:
   • A clear value proposition with use cases
   • A group or organisation that is responsible for driving strategy development
   • An open, inclusive, iterative process that involves all stakeholders
   • An accompanying roadmap that outlines practical steps for implementation
5. International PID providers such as ORCID and DataCite have begun to actively engage with national PID strategies and the RDA National PID Strategies WG provides a focal point for furthering this engagement.

Ouputs and accompanying materials

The group provide a Guide that compares and contrasts national PID strategies based on nine case studies we have collected. A checklist is also included to summarise and highlight key considerations.

The Outputs are available on the Group page and on Zenodo. 

An accompanying paper on the significance of national PID strategies and the group's work has been produced, and is available here, as well as a visual representation of the checklist. 

RDA TIGER

RDA TIGER is a project tasked with providing support services for the Working Groups (WGs) within the Research Data Alliance. The National PID Strategies WG is one of the pre-selected pilot groups receiving support services from the project. The accompanying white paper and checklist infographic were created as part of the TIGER communications service. 

Would you like to receive support for your Working Group? Apply now by responding to our Open Call.