A digital Persistent IDentifer (PID, pl. PIDs) is a unique identifier that represents a something with a number or code. The number or code permanently and unambiguously identifies something in a way that is easily machine-readable. Machine-readable means that digital machines, computer systems, and the Internet find the codes easy to work with. The "something" being identified depends on what kind of PID we are talking about. Some PIDs represent digital objects such as articles, datasets, or grant documents. Other PIDs represent physical people or things, but in a way that is easy for digital systems to use.
Another name for these identifiers is "Digital Persistent Identifiers" (DPI or DPIs), because they are so essential to improving research systems in the digital environment.
Have you ever searched for one topic online, but the results were another topic that was just called the same thing? Maybe you clicked on an author's name, but for all of the authors with the same name. Or maybe you searched for an article listed on a reading list, and found several similar but no exact matches to the article title. Research, science, and scholarship are complicated; computers have trouble keeping track of all of these things. By using an appropriate PID wherever possible, you can make research communication systems better!
Are you in a department seeking to integrate ORCID?
VCU Libraries maintains an institutional membership
Note that individual researchers maintain full control over their own ORCID records, and can always change settings.
The VCU Libraries also creates or "mints" DOIs, based on persistent identifier and DOI best practices. Items with an archival copy in Scholars Compass can have a DOI minted for them by request. Books published through the Libraries' publishing services receive DOIs, and journals published through VCU Libraries on Scholars Compass receive DOIs for each article.
While we hope all of our journals continue to publish with us, DOIs ensure that articles remain discoverable even if a journal migrates to another platform. Properly minted and managed DOIs provide the persistence that enables readers and search engines to locate content reliably over time.
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