Digital Persistent Identifiers (DPIs) or Persistent IDentifiers (PIDs) are long-lasting unique codes made up of a string of letters and numbers that are assigned to different people, objects, or ideas. Two common examples of PIDs are Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs – which you may be most familiar with for journal articles or other online texts) and Open Researcher and Contributor IDs (ORCIDs – a free identifier that researchers can claim and attach to their work).
Why do we care about persistent identifiers? A primary reason is that persons and works may have the same name/title, and a unique identifier fixes that issue by disambiguating them. Another reason is that on-line locations (such as websites and links) may change and break, while PIDs are designed to be updated to point to the current location of the object.
If you have a paper, dataset, or other digital object that needs a DOI, it must be available online. UNL Libraries Research Data Team can help find the right place to deposit your material to generate a DOI. As of summer 2024, the Libraries are also working towards supporting Research Resource Identifiers (RRIDs) for physical resources. You can contact the Libraries team if you need assistance signing up for – or retrieving – an ORCID.