status: Recognised & Endorsed

Chair (s): Louise Darroch, Markus Stocker, Rolf Krahl, Ted Habermann

Group Email: [group_email]

Secretariat Liaison: Bridget Walker


Webinar - Persistent Identification of Instruments - 19 May 2022

The Persistent Identification of Instruments Working Group seeks to explore a community-driven solution for globally unique identification of measuring instruments operated in the sciences.

 

Measuring instruments, such as sensors used in environmental science, DNA sequencers used in life sciences or laboratory engines used for medical domains, are widespread in most fields of applied sciences. The ability to link an active instrument (instance) with an instrument type and with the broader context in which the instrument operates (including generated data, other instruments and platforms, people and manufacturers, etc.) is critical, especially for automated processing of such contextual information and for the interpretation of generated data.

 

The identification and description of instrument models and instances is gaining momentum. Several disciplines are using established controlled vocabularies (standardised terms) to identify devices. Advances in Semantic Sensor Web technologies (encodings of sensor descriptions that are machine-readable and interoperable) have resulted in new instrument metadata schemas. Some Persistent Identifiers (PIDs), such as Universally Unique Identifiers (UUIDs) or Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) are already being utilised.

 

Our group aims to build on these developments and establish a cross-discipline, operational solution for the unique and lasting identification of measuring instruments actively operated in the sciences.

 

Objectives

  • Explore the use of a globally unique solution to persistently identify active measuring instruments
  • Recommend a metadata profile to describe instruments that harmonises existing identification standards and complements existing metadata schemas
  • Explore methodology/technology to register and resolve the new PID
  • Operationalise the solution by engaging existing PID infrastructure providers, instrument developers and manufacturers, as well as instrument database providers

Collaborative Notes Link:

Persistent Identification of Instruments: PIDINST Adoption - Google Docs

 

Current activities

 

The WG collects use cases for persistent identification of instruments, aligns the collected metadata, and develops a metadata schema. 

 

The schema is available on GitHub at https://github.com/rdawg-pidinst/schema and we encourage comments from the community.

 

So far, we have obtained the following use cases (Last update: March 2019).

  1. GEOFON by Javier Quinteros (November 2017)
  2. HZB by Rolf Krahl (November 2017)
  3. NIF by Veah Tapat et al. (December 2017)
  4. IREA-CNR by Alessandro Oggioni et al. (January 2018)
  5. SENSOR.awi.de by Ana Macario et al. (April 2018)
  6. Marine SWE by Robert Huber et al. (May 2018)
  7. ORCID by Tom Demeranville (May 2018)
  8. ICOS Carbon Portal by Claudio D’Onofrio et al. (June 2018)
  9. BODC by Louise Darroch et al. (July 2018)
  10. ESO by Dominic Bordelon et al. (August 2018)
  11. FZJ Central Library (JLSRF) by Claudia Frick (September 2018)
  12. PANGAEA by Anusuriya Devaraju et al. (September 2018)
  13. EuroGOOS/PSMSL/GLOSS by Louise Darroch (October 2018)
  14. LTER-Europe by Alessandro Oggioni et al. (October 2018)
  15. UK Polar Data Centre by Alex Tate (February 2019)

 

Posts

28
February
2023

Next call, Wed, March 1, 8 am UTC

by Markus Stocker

Dear all, We will have our next call tomorrow at: https://tib-eu.webex.com/meet/markus.stocker Notes at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RRO5YQ-mHWV4hb5Xixg89_HWDvgYN2lUwHHz... Cheers, m.
0 | Add new comment
02
February
2023

Japanese Translation of PIDINST white paper

by Takaaki Aoki

Dear PIDINST colleagues, A small Japanese group translated the PIDINST white paper into Japanese. A WG blonging to RDUF (Research Data Utilization Forum) are learning how tangible research objects (including research instruments, materials, bio samples, etc.) can be identified in digital and referred from not only their lab or institute but also the world. Now, the the translated materials are maintained on github forked from the original repository,
4 | Add new comment
31
January
2023

Next call tomorrow, Feb 1 at 3 pm UTC

by Markus Stocker

Dear all, after a longer break, we are meeting again tomorrow. Notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RRO5YQ-mHWV4hb5Xixg89_HWDvgYN2lUwHHz... Connection: https://tib-eu.webex.com/meet/markus.stocker Cheers, m.
0 | Add new comment
24
January
2023

FAIRPoints ‘Ask me Anything’ Event: Focus on Identifiers

by Secretariat Group Account

The next FAIRPoints ‘Ask me Anything’ (AMA) event in its ongoing series will take place on 26 January and focus on the topic of Identifiers.   Speakers will discuss the different types of identifiers available, their importance in creating FAIRDigital objects, and how they can be applied and integrated into research practices.  To learn more and register, visit https://www.lyyti.fi/reg/fairpoints_ama. 
0 | Add new comment
03
January
2023

Monthly call cancelled

by Markus Stocker

Dear all, We hope you started 2023 well and wish you and your families a healthy and successful year. Due to holidays, the monthly call tomorrow is cancelled. Cheers, m.
0 | Add new comment
06
December
2022

Meeting tomorrow is cancelled

by Markus Stocker

Dear all, Since we lack a host for tomorrow, the meeting for December is cancelled. On behalf of the co-chairs and the WG we wish you enjoyable holiday season. Cheers, m.
0 | Add new comment
05
December
2022

RDA 20th Plenary - Notification of Acceptance

by Secretariat Group Account

Dear Chairs of the FAIR Data Maturity Model WG and the Persistent Identification of Instruments WG, Your RDA 20th Plenary (P20) session application titled ‘The Way to FAIR: from data collection to citation’ has been approved. Please consider this your official notification of acceptance. * Draft programme to be published on Friday, 16th December 2022 * Any requests for changes must be made by Friday, 13th January 2023 * The programme will be deemed final by Thursday, 19th January 2023
0 | Add new comment
02
November
2022

Invitation to discuss the integration of PIDINST in schema.org and other metadata formats

by Robert Huber

Dear PIDINST enthusiasts, Linking sensor information in commonly used metadata formats such as schema.org or DCAT can be challenging and a variety of sulutions are possible. In order to harmonise this a bit we would kindly like to invite you to start a discussion on this issue and collect for example your implementation proposals.
0 | Add new comment
01
November
2022

Next telco tomorrow, Wed, Nov 2, 8 am UTC

by Markus Stocker

Dear all, Our next call is tomorrow and Louise kindly agreed to host it; I am unable to attend tomorrow. Note the different link: https://ukri.zoom.us/j/7025686997 Meeting notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UfBkNo1gQKsfyejQvJew4R1u3XhoCgPMw0X3... Cheers, m.
0 | Add new comment
28
October
2022

Invitation to participate in 'A Decade of Data: 10 Years of the RDA' events and activities

by Connie Clare

Good day, The RDA Secretariat would like to invite the Persistent Identification of Instruments WG to participate in ‘A Decade of Data’: Celebrating 10 Years of the Research Data Alliance’. 10 months to celebrate 10 years of the RDA
0 | Add new comment

Pages