1. Persistent identifiers for instruments (PIDINST) working group
Louise Darroch
British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC)
National Oceanography Centre (NOC)
RDA-UK/FREYA Workshop, London, 16th July 2019

2. Persistent identifiers
It is customary to think that PIDs are only used to cite journals or datasets….
Classic example: Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

3. How PIDs are being used A sample A biological entity A person
Increasingly, PIDs are being used to universally locate and identify physical things or events
A sample
A biological entity
A person
International Geo Sample Number (IGSN)
Life Science Identifier
(LSID)
ORCID ID

4. PIDs and instruments What PID Thing/event Who
Long lasting identifiers are already being used to identify resources related to instruments
All resolvable
Not all metadata is easily extractable
Not all true PIDs?
What
PID
Thing/event
Who
Platforms models
HIAPER Gulfstream GV aircraft
Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL)
Platform instances
RV Oceanus
ICES
Platform deployments
Cruise OC1611B on RV Oceanus
Rolling Deck to Repository (R2R)
Instrument models
Rockwell Collins PLGR 96 GPS
NERC Vocabulary Server
Instrument instances
Data
Ostracods in permafrost deposits from the Bykovsky Peninsula 1998/1999.
PANGAEA

5. An example of a deployment
DOI registered at global provider

6. PIDs and instruments What PID Thing/event Who
Long lasting identifiers are already being used to identify resources related to instruments
All resolvable
Not all metadata is easily extractable
Not all true PIDs?
What
PID
Thing/event
Who
Platforms models
HIAPER Gulfstream GV aircraft
Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL)
Platform instances
RV Oceanus
ICES
Platform deployments
Cruise OC1611B on RV Oceanus
Rolling Deck to Repository (R2R)
Instrument models
Rockwell Collins PLGR 96 GPS
NERC Vocabulary Server
Instrument instances
Data
Ostracods in permafrost deposits from the Bykovsky Peninsula 1998/1999.
PANGAEA

7. What is an instrument instance?
Instrument model - design (iphone 7)
Instrument instance – physical thing

8. Why PIDs? Part of the research object (transparency)
Metrics/funding (credit)
Associated metadata puts data into context (integrity)
Streamline workflows (machine automation)
● Metrics that quantify the use of instruments and the rationale for future funding
● Link data to the instruments that generated them (provenance), improving the interpretation and validity of data
● Aid equipment logistics and mission planning
● Facilitate interoperability and open data sharing, especially in advancing technologies that foster sharing of instruments
● Improve the discoverability and visibility of instruments and their data, published on the web.

9. FAIR Data Guiding Principles
Wilkinson et al.
Scientific Data volume3, Article number:  (2016)

10. Research Data Alliance (RDA)
Persistent Identification of Instruments (PIDINST) WG
Chairs:
Markus Stocker (lead) – TIB (DE)
Louise Darroch – BODC/NOC (UK)
Andrew Janke – NIF (AUS)
Alessandro Oggioni – CNR/IREA (ITL)
Endorsed:
March 2018
Over 50 international members

11. Gather cross-community use cases
Some examples…..

12. Real world application
Meteorology
UK Polar Data Centre
Wide range of polar data (e.g. marine, biological, atmospheric etc.)
Instrument asset management systems
Reduce data ingestion times
RRS Sir David Attenborough
Wildlife

13. Real world application
E.g. Molecular, Human, Materials Imaging
10 nodes across Australia
NIF-certified data
Instruments must be NIF-compliant with registered unique ID (IUID)
Associate QA/QC procedures (trust/integrity)

14. Real world application
Journal for describing large-scale facilities
Human readable articles
Machine readable metadata
Link to other resources (e.g. research articles)
Link to sub-components
Credit to assets

15. Metadata schema for PID providers
Gathered cross-community use-cases
Metadata alignment exercise
Rationalise to a metadata schema
In discussions for adoption (e.g. DataCite)

16. Institutional provider white paper (technical report)
Aimed at institutional instrument providers
Advise on publishing institutional metadata
Wide range of topics (e.g. content negotiation, linking data, landing pages, calibrations etc.)

17. Thank you