Persistent Identifiers in Germany: Key Findings of a Nationwide Survey

Persistent identifiers (PIDs) are global, unique, resolvable, and persistent references that have become core components of open science and FAIR research as well as their infrastructures. This article reports key findings from the first nationwide Survey on the Need for and Use of Persistent Identifiers at Research and Infrastructure Organizations in Germany.

This survey is based on a cross-sectional, cross-disciplinary online survey covering more than 20 PID types and established entity categories, targeting all relevant public-sector academic and non-academic research organizations in Germany as well as European and international research infrastructure nodes headquartered in Germany.

Responses from a diverse set of academic and non-academic research and infrastructure organizations provide an empirical basis for analyzing PID familiarity and use, training needs, infrastructural embedding, and strategic framework conditions. The findings indicate that PID adoption is currently concentrated on a limited set of widely established identifiers (DOI, ISBN, ORCID iD, GND, URN), whereas newer or specialized identifiers remain less recognized and are infrequently implemented. PID usage predominantly occurs within publication and research data workflows, with anticipated expansion to additional entity types such as research software and instruments. Across organizations, respondents strongly point out high-quality, interoperable metadata as a precondition for sustainable PID integration, yet many report capacity and governance constraints, including limited institutional training and guidance, insufficient expertise and personnel, and uncertainty about benefits. This survey delivers a comprehensive, empirical dataset for systematic analysis, a first in this field.

A key opportunity is to enhance the efficiency and potency of managing, ensuring the traceability of, and monitoring of research activities across academic and non-academic organizations in Germany. The findings provide an evidence-based foundation for developing a national PID roadmap by highlighting the current level of usage, existing practices, and gaps. They also highlight objectives for strengthening Germany’s PID ecosystem, including better alignment of advisory and training resources with the needs of scholarly communities and the systematic integration of PIDs into digital strategies to advance Germany’s digital transition toward more interoperable national and European research infrastructures.