Aligning and coordinating national PID strategies

At the RDA Plenary 17 a Birds of a Feather session examined six case studies of national PID strategies and frameworks, and looked at commonalities and divergences between them, and assessed the potential benefit of collaboration and alignment in the development and implementation of future national initiatives. 

The consensus from this BoF was that a National PID Strategies WG should be formed with the objective of mapping common activities across national agencies/efforts and report on the specific PIDs adopted in the context of national PID strategies.

Commonalities already exist across the example case studies, such as a national PID policy, a coordinating network/group developing roadmap and policies, similar PIDs being prioritised in national infrastructures and ORCID/DataCite consortia being common. These will form the basis for discussion within the WG and input from other countries will be sought.

The WG will enable coordination and community discussion to deliver the following:

• mapping common activities across national agencies/efforts and a report on the specific PID adopted in the context of national PID strategies;

• agreed PID categories and defined common metadata and standards for PIDs;

• a minimal set of PIDs for international interoperability;

• example ideas on governance and common workflows.

Having a WG looking at national PID strategies would provide an opportunity to promote international PID systems rather than isolated national systems, avoid replication of PID development, and exchange experience of national-level PID coordination and map needs.