National PID Strategies WG

Group co-chairs: Christopher Brown, Natasha Simons, Daniel Bangert, Shawna Sadler

Recommendation Title: RDA National PID Strategies Guide and Checklist

Authors: Natasha Simons, Christopher Brown, Daniel Bangert, Shawna Sadler

Impact: The RDA National PID Strategies WG has produced a comparison guide and checklist that can be used when developing a national PID strategy. This is supported by the nine case studies collected from countries at different stages of developing a national PID strategy. The countries are Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. The guide offers a comparison of the nine case studies, including scope, drivers, strategy development, key features and priority PIDs. The checklist can be used as a starting point for developing your national PID strategy. You do not need to complete all of the numbered points or follow the order. The checklist is designed to be used flexibly to help you think about what is needed. The Guide, Case Studies and Checklist can be used to: Inform the development of your national PID strategy Develop a roadmap to accompany your strategy Align with international initiatives in this important area Facilitate stakeholder engagement with national PID strategies Connect, communicate and collaborate with others developing national PID strategies

Recommendation package DOI: 10.15497/rda/00091

Citation: Simons, N., Brown, C., Bangert, D., & Sadler, S. (2023). National PID Strategies Guide and Checklist (Version 1.0). Research Data Alliance. https://doi.org/10.15497/RDA/00091

Abstract

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 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.

An ambitious goal of the WG was to map common activities and produce a guide to help others – irrespective of geographical region – to follow a ‘blueprint’ to define their national PID strategy. However, given the findings listed above, a ‘blueprint Guide’ to national PID strategies is not possible at this stage. Instead, we provide a Guide that compares and contrasts national PID strategies based on nine case studies we have collected. An accompanying  Checklist is also included to summarise and highlight key considerations.

UN Sustainable Development Goals

The Recommendations contribute to Goal 9 of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.