Taking research information to the next level | OCLC | April 8, 2022

"Towards nationally integrated research information ecosystems A lot is happening currently in the field of research information management (RIM) at national levels. In her recent reports and blog post series, Rebecca Bryant observed that RIM practices in US research universities have taken a characteristically decentralized course, compared to countries in Europe and the Pacific Rim, where national research assessment requirements drive a more centralized approach. In fact, several countries – including Australia, Canada, Portugal, Finland, Norway, the UK and the Netherlands – pursue a national policy to integrate their research information.... Persistent identifiers as the underpinning infrastructure... The PID Graph – a concept implemented by the EU-funded FREYA project with PID data from DataCite, Crossref, ORCID, and the Registry of Research Data Repositories (re3data) – is an underpinning infrastructure that establishes connections between the entities that matter within the research landscape: researchers, universities, outputs, funders, grants, and more. As the authors of the article “Connected Research: The Potential of the PID Graph” explain, this approach takes PIDs (for example ORCID iDs and DOIs) as the basic nodes that are linked together, instead of the entities they represent (for example researchers, articles). It constructs a graph based on the relations available in the PID-metadata.... In some cases, a PID board or committee, with representatives from across the national higher education and research community (policymakers, funders, infrastructure providers, research libraries, research data repositories, etc.) steer this work. The recently installed Research Identifier National Coordinating Committee (RINCC) is an example: it ensures alignment between policy and practice across the research community nationally, and liaises with partners and stakeholders internationally. These national PID coordination efforts are usually linked to broader, national open science programs and open research infrastructure initiatives. We also see global PID stakeholders, such as ORCID and DataCite, form national consortia to promote and engage in concerted action on national PID use. The Research Data Alliance (RDA) likewise has its national nodes involved in national PID strategies, promoting alignment – as they did during the Birds of a Feather session in April of last year. The national consortia involved in the RIM integration efforts work hard to promote the systematic adoption and support of “priority PIDs” (DOIs, ORCID iDs, ROR IDs, RAiDs )..."