Commonly used PID for objects, persons and organizations

Hello there,

my name is Mario, I’m quite new to persistent identificators and I’ve got some questions:

  • Which PID are commonly used for objects? I heard of DOI, ARK and handle but surely there must be more.
  • Which PID are commonly used for persons? Here, I’ve read about ORCID and ISNI.
  • Which PID are commonly used for objects? Concerning this, maybe the Crossref Funder ID?

I can imagine there are many more PID that I never heard of before but which might be widespread and important.

Furthermore I’m interested about the “resolving” but I do not quite understand the idea behind it? Do all PID need to be resolved? And, if not, which are not resolved and why?

Maybe you can enlighten or guide me to the information I’m looking for.

Have a good evening

Hi Mario, and welcome to the PID community!
I think you might find some of our introduction to PIDs resources in the Knowledge Hub helpful - see Getting Started with PIDs - The PID Forum for example.
Basically, PIDs pretty much break down into three broad categories

  • PIDs for people eg ORCID and, to a lesser extent, ISNI, as you say
  • PIDs for places eg ROR (the Research Organization Registry and Ringgold, a proprietary organizational identifier)
  • PIDs for things - the biggest category as this can include any type of output (articles, books, datasets, etc - Crossref and DataCite DOIs are among the most widely used), research objects (eg IGSNs for geological samples, RRIDs - research resource identifiers, etc), grants (Crossref DOIs), and more
    You might also find this article by @TomDemeranville (ORCID’s product director) helpful as it talks about what makes a “good” persistent identifier, including why PIDs should resolve.
    Hope this helps!
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Hi Alice,

thank you for your quick reply and yes, it already helped me. I will now read the article you suggested and the other topics in the Knowledge Hub.

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