National PID Strategies WG rev-002

Case Statement: National PID Strategies Working Group – v2

Please note that this is the revised Case Statement (v2) following review by the RDA TAB. The original Case Statement can also be found attached to this page.

WG Charter

The existing RDA WGs and IGs linked to PIDs tend to focus on technical challenges, updates from specific PID providers on their activities and the state of the art, or on discipline-specific needs or challenges. The National PID Strategies WG would explore how PIDs form part of national policy implementation frameworks. There are systemic and network benefits from widespread and consistent PID adoption, and funders, government agencies, and national research communities have created PID consortia or policies (including mandates) in pursuit of these benefits.

At the RDA Plenary 17 a Birds of a Feather session examined six case studies of national PID strategies and frameworks, 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 reporting 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:

• Coordinate and align different national PID strategies and bring together PID experts to support the group
• Mapping common activities across national agencies/efforts and a report on the specific PIDs 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
• The benefits from having a national PID strategy and adopting priority PIDs and the investment requirements.

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.

Value Proposition

The value of PIDs and the underlying metadata associated with PIDs have been recognised across the globe. A number of countries have developed roadmaps, workflows and strategies to encourage integration and adoption of some of the key PIDs (priority PIDs in some countries) to support open access and open research. This WG will coordinate and align different national PID strategies and bring together PID experts to support the group. The work will be of interest to researchers, research managers, research information managers, research administrators, publishers, PID providers, funders, policy makers, repository managers and vendors, and institutions.

The WG will provide various ways for the community members to engage. Everyone who signs up to the group will receive regular updates through the ​RDA mailing list​. These will encourage collaboration and participation in online discussions, group meetings, collaborative documents, etc. All documentation produced by the group will be publicly accessible and open for feedback.

Engagement with existing work in the area

The National PID Strategies WG emerged from the BoF session at the RDA Virtual Plenary 17. This highlighted case studies from the UK, Netherlands, Finland, Canada, Australia and South America (Brazil and Peru). This WG will bring together representatives from these countries who are currently working on developing and implementing national PID strategies. It also provides the opportunity to encourage contributions from other countries, although the outputs will benefit those countries who are yet, or are planning, to develop their own national strategies. The organisations represented from the above countries include Jisc, ARDC, Research Data Canada, CSC, and SURF. As part of our PID work we engage with organisations such as ORCID, DataCite, Crossref, ROR, British Library, UKRI, EOSC, FORCE11, STM Association, Knowledge Exchange (and others identified in the initial planning phase) and would encourage their participation in the WG.

This WG will be relevant to the existing Persistent Identifiers Interest Group (PID IG), where we have previously shared updates, but will be focused on specific challenges in the national context: multi-disciplinary, policy-driven PID engagement and integration, for example. As such, it will complement the PID IG’s blend of project and provider updates and cross-PID community thematic discussions with an emphasis on specific implementation and coordination challenges.

Other RDA groups to coordinate with include Global Open Research Commons (GORC) IG, SHAring Rewards and Credit (SHARC) IG, PID IG, Persistent Identification of Instruments WG, FAIRsharing Registry: Connecting data policies, standards and databases RDA WG, RDA/WDS Scholarly Link Exchange (Scholix) WG, Research Funders and Stakeholders on Open Research and Data Management Policies and Practices IG, Data policy standardisation and implementation IG.

Engagement Plan

The National PID Strategies WG aims to engage with a number of parties, including PID providers, publishers, PID infrastructure providers, funding agencies, HE institutions and sector bodies.

The National PID Strategies WG plans to organise a WG session at each RDA Plenary during the WG’s lifetime. It’s hoped that the first session will be the RDA Virtual Plenary 18 when it’s likely that the WG status will be pending. The plenary sessions will be the main face-to-face meetings in which to provide updates, make decisions and discuss the actions over the six-months period. The WG will also present its progress in the RDA PID IG session at each plenary session, if accepted. Individuals may also utilise regular conferences to promote the group and encourage participation.

Work Plan

Deliverables

The National PID Strategies WG will first of all map common activities across national agencies/efforts and deliver a report on the specific PIDs adopted in the context of national PID strategies. It will seek community input to agree on PID categories and define common metadata and standards for PIDs, define a minimal set of PIDs for international interoperability, and provide example ideas on governance and common workflows. The report produced is a recommendation that can be adopted or adapted by other countries looking to develop their own national PID strategies. By following the recommendations it will encourage standardisation internationally.

Milestones

Assuming the WG is endorsed in time for the RDA Virtual Plenary 18, the WG will kick-off at this event. This will allow us to encourage participation in the WG and consensus on its core objectives. Each subsequent Plenary during the WG’s lifetime (M1-M18) will be a milestone as we will provide updates on the WG’s progress and review the plan.

0 – 6 months – map common activities across national agencies/efforts and deliver a guide on the specific PIDs adopted in the context of national PID strategies. This will help others, irrespective of geographical region, follow a blueprint to defining their national PID approach.

0-12 months – seek community input to agree on PID categories and define common metadata and standards for PIDs, define a minimal set of PIDs for international interoperability, and provide example ideas on governance and common workflows.

12-18 months – complete community consultation and finalise agreement on report, national case studies, PID categories, common metadata and standards for PIDs, and minimal set of PIDs.

Operation

The National PID Strategies WG will meet virtually or physically (depending on restrictions) at RDA Plenary meetings (P18, P19, P20 or P19, P20. P21 if not endorsed in time for P18) during its 18 months lifetime. These meetings will serve as a platform to present and discuss progress, address and resolve open issues, and to plan the following six-months phase.

The WG will also hold monthly calls for the whole group. These will allow the group members to check on progress against the plan, update the community and obtain input and feedback.

Consensus and Conflicts

The National PID Strategies WG plans to develop consensus by encouraging and ensuring participation in online monthly meetings, as well as the larger plenary meetings. Input will be provided by the initial six case studies, which will be used to define PID categories and define common metadata and standards for PIDs. Through community consultation it will ensure that the work is not restricted to these countries but is open to a wide and diverse group as possible.

If consensus cannot be reached the WG will vote on issues and adopt a weighted multi-vote approach whereby each member can cast up to three votes, from most to least preferred.

The co-chairs are committed to keep the development on track and within scope. We will also undertake regular retrospectives where we assess progress against milestones and review the plan for the next phase.

Community Engagement

The working group case statement will be disseminated to RDA mailing lists, relevant PID communities and stakeholders, PID providers, funders and publishers to ensure a diverse, international and multidisciplinary membership. As well as engaging via the RDA, there are other groups and events where the PID community come together. Members of this working group are active within these and well placed to ensure the activities of this working group are brought to the attention of an international community, as well as ensuring input into the working group comes from these multiple sources. Engagement will not just be focussed on the global north and we have already included strategies from South American countries, but we will ensure there is engagement and input from other countries from the global south and developing countries.

Group members are already involved in events such as PIDapalooza, sit on community steering groups for PID providers and engage with international PID-related work. We will work to ensure the membership of the group is increased to include as many members of the PID community as possible, as well as including those that may not yet have participated in such activities and groups. We will engage with EOSC, in particular the PID policy work to ensure the working group’s activities are aligned with the European PID landscape.

Adoption Plan

The primary deliverable from the working group is the report produced from converging multiple national PID strategies that can be adopted or adapted by other countries looking to develop their own national PID strategies. The working group will actively engage with PID providers, funders, publishers and relevant groups throughout the lifetime of the group in order to communicate progress and obtain feedback.

As well as encouraging countries to adopt national strategies for PIDs, part of the group’s work is to increase the adoption and use of priority PIDs. This group will identify commonalities between existing strategies and those PIDs identified as a priority, but these need to be adopted internationally. PIDs have a vital role to play in the transformation of the research communication system. However, the challenges of achieving consistent, reliable PID adoption, integration and coverage are substantial. By having a set of priority PIDs and implementing national strategies, other countries can target solutions to research challenges, and ensure that the potential benefits of PID usage can be delivered and demonstrated to the research sector. This will bring savings to the sector as identified by the recent cost-benefit analysis report from Jisc.

Initial Membership

During the National PID Strategies BoF at the RDA Plenary 17, 41 people signed the shared document asking if they would like to be kept informed about future discussions, plans and any proposal for an Interest/Working Group. Of these, 9 people indicated that they would be interested in participating in a Interest/Working Group. Communication about the formation of this Working Group will be shared with the RDA and the wider community.

* The people marked above with an asterisk were either involved in organising and presenting at the original BoF, or indicated subsequently a willingness to be involved. They have shown interest in the group and made a commitment to the establishment of the working group. At the first meeting of the working group, we will actively reach out to representatives from those regions of the world that aren’t represented, such as Africa and Asia, and follow up to ensure there is a global representation on the group.

Working Group Chairs

The co-chairs are Natasha Simons (ARDC, Australia) and Christopher Brown (Jisc, UK).

National20PID20Strategies20WG20Case20Statement.pdf

National20PID20Strategies20WG20Case20Statement20-20v2.pdf