Working with PIDs in Tools IG Charter

The lack of interoperability between tools presents a significant barrier to streamlining research workflows throughout the research lifecycle. These gaps prevent the comprehensive collection and incorporation of research data and metadata into the research record captured during the active research phase. This is a particular issue in relation to persistent identifiers (PIDs).  Furthermore, it limits the scope for passing this data and metadata, including PIDs,  on to data repositories, thus undermining FAIR data principles and reproducibility. This IG is proposed as:

• A place to address interoperability between tools, leveraging PID and metadata infrastructure.
• A platform for research-supporting service providers and PID/ open infrastructure organizations to outline use cases, explore challenges, and poll resources to provide reference and guidance to chart ways forward.
• A forum for dissecting the interoperability challenges through discussion of concrete case studies involving application of PIDs to tools in multiple communities of practice.

An initial discussion about these issues was held in a FORCE 11 Community call in February, 2022.  Since then conversations around these issues between those involved in the Community Call and others have continued, and several of the participants are engaged in projects involving implementation of these ideas.  The group thinks there is a need to create an ongoing forum for discussion, and  an RDA IG seems like the ideal vehicle for that.

This group is directly and closely aligned  with the RDA mission of  building the social and technical bridges that enable open sharing and re-use of data.  It will do that by galvanizing community interest in an emerging area of interest and concern that has arisen with the increased adoption of PIDs, namely how they can be incorporated into research tools.  Addressing this issue is critical to ensuring that the data sharing and reuse potential of PIDs is realized in practice.