What are persistent identifiers?

Persistent identifiers are names given to any type of publication (research results, data, software). These names are linked to the publication’s location within a table. If the publication location changes, only the reference in the table needs to be updated, while the identifier remains the same. This usually happens automatically, unbeknownst to the authors and users.

This makes literature research, quoting, and linking publications and their accompanying data possible in the long term. Examples of persistent identifiers include the Digital Object Identifier (DOI), the Uniform Resource Name (URN), ePIC, and Handle.

Further information can be found in Chapter 13.2 of the Nestor guidebook, “Eine kleine Enzyklopädie der digitalen Langzeitarchivierung.”