The PID-optimised research cycle

What's this?

This diagram represents an ideal PID-optimised research cycle, where persistent identifiers —for all people, places, projects, and things associated with research —are registered, used, and shared at every stage. Five PIDs have been prioritised, based on community input. Along with their metadata, they are collected and used by funders, institutions, and publishers, at the earliest possible point in the process.

Interactivity

Select the red-outlined arrows to show info boxes about PID and metadata transactions at each stage of the research cycle.

You can also move around the cycle with the red arrows that will be in the info boxes, or use arrow keys.

The PID registries at the centre collectively act as a central store of metadata associated with all research objects and stakeholders — click each logo to learn more.

The outer circle contains icons representing the key stakeholders and participants in the research lifecycle — click each icon to display its label.

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Crossref, founded in 2000, was the first collaborative reference linking system and official Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Registration Agency. Crossref registers DOIs for a variety of content types, including journals, books, conference proceedings, working papers, technical reports, and data sets, as well as for grants.

Crossref is a not-for-profit association with over 15,000 organisational members from 140 countries. The Crossref database contains over 135 million items with associated metadata (as of July 2021).

Click here to learn more about Crossref

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DataCite is a not-for-profit membership organisation and official Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Registration Agency, providing persistent identifiers for research data and other research outputs. By assigning DOIs, DataCite member organisations ensure their outputs are discoverable and that the associated metadata is made available to the community.

DataCite members include data centers, libraries, government agencies, research universities, and more from 40+countries.

Click here to learn more about DataCite.

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  Research Activity Identifier

Created and funded by Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC), the Research Activity Identifier (RAiD) is a new PID for research projects. It acts as a container for research project activities by collecting identifiers for the people, outputs, instruments, resources, and institutions involved.

RAiD uses the handle system (the same technology that underpins DOI) and records time and date stamps for funders, organisations, collaborators, and research outputs. Its business model is still being established.

Click here to learn more about RAiD.

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ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a not-for-profit organisation that provides a unique, persistent identifier (an ORCID ID) for individuals to use as they engage in research, scholarship, and innovation activities.

As of July 2021, ORCID has over 1,100 members (research organisations, publishers, funders, professional associations, and other stakeholders) and more than 12 million ORCID IDs have been registered.

Click here to learn more about ORCID.

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The Research Organization Registry (ROR) is a community-led project, founded in 2019, to develop an open, sustainable, usable, and unique identifier for every research organisation in the world. Implementation of ROR IDs in scholarly infrastructure and metadata will enable more efficient discovery and tracking of research outputs across institutions and funding bodies.

ROR plans to become self-sustaining by providing paid services on top of its core, free identifier offering. In the meantime, it is sustained through in-kind support from its governing organisations, donations, and grants.

Click here to learn more about ROR.

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   Digital Object Identifier

Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) are persistent identifiers that can be used for a wide variety of outputs (publications, datasets, software, and more) and other entities, such as grants.

The International DOI Foundation, a not-for-profit membership organisation, is the governance and management body for the federation of Registration Agencies that provide DOI services and registration, including Crossref and DataCite.

Click here to learn more about the International DOI Foundation

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= Funding organisation
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= Research performing organisation
= Research contributor
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=
Research output platform
(articles, data, algorithms, etc)
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= Research performing organisation
= Research contributor
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Actors and entities
 =   Funding organisations
 =   Research-performing organisations
 =   Research contributors
 =  
Research output platforms/publishers
(articles, data, algorithms, etc)
Priority PIDs and registries
 =  Crossref
 =  Datacite
 =  ORCID
 =  Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
 =  Research Activity Identifier (RAiD)
 =  Research Organisation Registry (ROR)
1. Grant Application

Researchers and institutions pass PIDs for previous grants, outputs, organisations, people, and projects to grant application systems

BENEFITS:
  1. Less manual data entry
  2. More accurate data
  3. More time for including contextual information
2. Grant application and review

Funders ingest data about grants, outputs, organisations, and projects from PID registries

BENEFITS:
  1. Less manual data entry
  2. More accurate data
  3. More time for including contextual information
  4. Easier reviewer selection and recognition
3. Grant award (1)

Funders register DOIs for new grants and associated metadata

BENEFITS:
  1. Globally unique grant IDs and metadata to aid reporting
  2. Authoritative metadata and connections to other PIDs to aid project management
  3. Simplified communication of and compliance with policies
    (e.g. Open Access (OA), Data Management Plans (DMPs), etc.)
4. Grant award (2)

Institutions ingest data about grants and associated people and organisations

BENEFITS:
  1. More accurate data
  2. Time/effort savings
  3. Improved reporting
5. Project registration

Institutions register RAiDs for projects and add/update links to associated grants, equipment, people, and organisations

BENEFITS:
  1. More accurate data
  2. Time/effort savings
  3. Improved visibility of collaborations across institutions and countries
6. Output submission

Researchers share their ORCID ID when submitting new outputs and connect to ROR IDs for institutional affiliations and grant DOIs for funding

BENEFITS:
  1. More accurate data about co-authors, affiliations, and funding
  2. Time/effort savings in review and metadata creation
  3. Easier sign-in
  4. Easier article processing charge (APC) management
  5. Easier reviewer selection and recognition
7. Output publication

Publisher/repository ingests data about grants, people, projects, and organisations linked to outputs

BENEFITS:
  1. Reduced administrative overhead for publishers
  2. Improved author experience
  3. Richer metadata to aid discovery, analysis, and reporting
8. Output registration

Publisher/repository registers DOIs for new outputs and populate metadata

BENEFITS:
  1. Globally unique output IDs and metadata to aid analysis, citation, discovery, and reporting
  2. Embedded PIDs for associated entities (authors, funding, etc.) streamline reporting and analysis
  3. Greater ability to track reach and impact of content
9. Reporting

PID registries send automatic updates of new publications etc. to institutions

BENEFITS:
  1. Reduced administrative overhead for institutions
  2. More timely data for reporting and analysis
  3. Less manual data entry improves accuracy
  4. Time/effort savings for researchers
10. Reporting

Researchers and institutions pass PIDs for outputs, organisations, people, and projects to funders' reporting systems

BENEFITS:
  1. Less manual data entry
  2. More accurate data
  3. More time for including contextual information