Introduction to PIDMR

The increasing use of PIDs to reference all types of research results is a major step forward in meeting future requirements for the FAIRness of (research) data. Although this trend is very welcome, new challenges arise in processing these PIDs and integrating them into different research processes. The biggest difficulty is the multitude of systems used to create and maintain PIDs. The challenge is to know which system is responsible for the resolution process, the process that provides the referenced (meta-)data for a PID. A uniform interface that allows PIDs from different systems to be resolved can simplify various processes. The PID Meta Resolver is such an interface and will be extended in the project to integrate different systems.

The PID Meta Resolver is a generalized resolver for mapping keys into values. The PID Meta Resolver will know where to route different types of identifiers – e.g. DOI or URN:NBN. The main goal of the PID Meta Resolver is to improve machine based data processing and to allow getting digital object information without in-depth knowledge of the resolution mechanism of different PID systems. That enhances the compilation and analysis of data collections originating not only from different sources but also referenced by different PID systems.