Open Science Identifiers – Identifying Open Science

Melanie Röthlisberger, Open Access Ambassador of the SNSF and Senior Research at the English Department of UZH, talked about Open Science identifiers and practices. She particularly focused on the importance of persistent identifiers (PIDs). To kick off the session, the participants were asked to discuss how research can be opened up, and the results showed how many different approaches and strategies there are across disciplines to do so. Röthlisberger subsequently gave some more examples and suggestions of possible Open Science practices throughout the whole scientific process, from research, to analysis, writing, publication, outreach, and assessment.

This discussion was followed by an input on PIDs (Persistent: an organization made a promise to keep them alive; Identifiers: globally unique string) and their necessity for Open Science with regards to data and journal publication, as well as researcher identification. PIDs are usually backed by an organization or registry that indicates what item is being identified. They are often expressed as URLs, and the registry indicates where that URL should ultimately resolve. PIDs always point to the correct item (articles, people, data, software, research organizations, etc.) even if the item’s location changes. Röthlisberger explained that PIDs make research FAIR and they are disambiguate. The talk was closed with some advice on how the participants can open their research and make it FAIR: 1. getting a PID for their work and person; and 2. connecting their research by linking their PIDs to their other PIDs.

• Slides: Open Science identifiers →