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Joint-Meeting Session January 24, 2025

Persistent Identifiers for Facilities

Plenary: RDA 24th Plenary Meeting – Fully Virtual

Submitted by
Rolf Krahl
Recording

Meeting objectives

Collaborative session notes:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/10gTUhWK3umLmjGPhmUaQzMsgFmHw2dUm/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=104358842683409363823&rtpof=true&sd=true
Slides: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TqkntzRQwC3awQ_4AesGPLcjNnuRy16H?usp=sharing

A session at RDA P23 “PIDs in the Gray Areas: Tackling the Challenges of Identifying Instruments, Facilities, and the Research Tools Continuum” discussed the question which Persistent Identifiers should be used to identify facilities.

Most participants agreed that facilities are something between instruments and organizations. Therefore it was discussed whether PIDINST or ROR could be used. For either option there were participants who opposed the respective idea and deemed it as “not appropriate”. It became obvious that this subject would need more discussion. In particular, it seems that we need more clarity on what is a “facility” after all and what distinguishes it from an instrument and from an organization respectively.

This session aims to contribute to that followup discussion. It will start with a few prepared contributions that should provide an insight on the meaning of the term “facility” in different communities, followed by a general discussion and – if possible – a conclusion.

Meeting presenters

Rolf Krahl, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie; Marek Cebecauer, Heyrovsky Institute Prague, RDA Ambassador for Materials Sciences and Engineering; Matt Mayernik, National Center for Atmospheric Research / University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

Meeting agenda

  1. Welcome and Intro – Rolf Krahl (5 min.)
  2. What do we mean by a “facility”? Prepared contributions:
    1. Instruments/equipment and facilities from data management automation tools perspective – Marek Cebecauer (10 min.)
    2. FAIR Facilities and Instruments Project – Matt Mayernik (10 min.)
    3. Synchrotron Light Sources and Reactors: Large Scale Facilities for the Research with Photons and Neutrons – Rolf Krahl (10 min.)
  3. Discussion – all (45 min.)
  4. Conclusion: are we able to give a recommendation? – all (10 min.)

Target audience

  • Data managers that want to attribute Persistent Identifiers to facilities or that need to link research outputs with the facilities that created them using its PID,
  • Facility managers,
  • Everybody having an interest in an as comprehensive as possible PID graph.

Group Activities and Scope

The Working with PIDs in Tools IG is a place to:

  • Address interoperability between tools, leveraging PID and metadata infrastructure.
  • Serve as 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.
  • Serve as a forum for dissecting the interoperability challenges through discussion of concrete case studies involving application of PIDs to tools in multiple communities of practice.

The Persistent Identification of Instruments Working Group seeks to explore a community-driven solution for globally unique identification of measuring instruments operated in the sciences. It formulated a metadata schema for the description of instruments that is supposed to be registered with the PID record and explored options with PID infrastructure providers to register PIDs for instruments.

Additional links to informative material

  • Mayernik, M. et al. 2024 “Persistent Identifiers for Instruments and Facilities: Current State, Challenges, and Opportunities.” Journal of eScience Librarianship 13 (3): e964. https://doi.org/10.7191/jeslib.964.

Short Group Status

The Working with PIDs in Tools IG was established in 2022 and has been active ever since. We have hosted a session at every Plenary since the group was established.

The Persistent Identification of Instruments WG kicked off at RDA P11 in March 2018 and concluded its formal 18 month term at RDA P14 in October 2019. An overview on the outcomes is provided on a dedicated web site. It is in “maintenance mode” now, but still active and has regular meetings, maintaining its outputs and supporting adoption. We occasionally hosted sessions at Plenaries since then (P16, P17, P19 & P20).

Applicable Pathways

FAIR, CARE, TRUST - Evaluation and Policy
Data Infrastructures and Environments - Generalist

Avoid conflict with the following groups

PID IG

Please indicate at least (3) three breakout slots that would suit your meeting.

Breakout 4. Tuesday, 8 April, 14:00-15:30 UTC
Breakout 7. Wednesday, 9 April, 14:00-15:30 UTC
Breakout 10. Thursday, 10 April, 14:00-15:30 UTC