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Metadata and identifiers

Use persistent identifiers (PIDs) when publishing and describing data

All data publications should be assigned a persistent identifier (e.g. DOI). Any research outputs that use or refer to the data should use its unique PID. Identifiers used to describe and link the data to researchers (ORCID) and organisations (ROR) should be specified in the accompanying metadata.

Why?

PIDs make up a fundamental infrastructure enabling data publications and other research outputs to be found, cited, followed up and linked to the right researcher and organisation over time.

Researchers should record links to relevant publications and projects in the metadata of a data publication at the point of publication, using the structured fields provided by the repository.

Why?

When links between data, publications, and projects are captured directly in the metadata, they become machine-readable and can be reused for monitoring, reporting, and analysis without the need for manual enrichment.

How?

  • Use the repository’s designated fields for related identifiers, such as Related identifier or Related publication.
  • Provide the links in the form of persistent identifiers where available (e.g. a DOI or project identifier).
  • Add these links at the time of publication to ensure they are included in downstream metadata flows.