A persistent identifier (PID) is a digital identifier that is globally unique, persistent, machine resolvable, has an associated metadata schema, identifies an entity (e.g. a person/researcher, publication, award, organization, or research output), and is frequently used to disambiguate between entities. PIDs are long-lasting, managed, and registered unique digital reference (often in the form of a URL) to an object (e.g., person, organization, research output, award) that can be represented or described online. The identifier is a string of numbers, letters, and/or symbols assigned to the digital object.

PIDs enable individuals to uniquely identify themselves. You will need a PID for yourself if you are part of an application for DOE funding or have received DOE funding. The requirement is to provide that PID within the Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support forms when applying for financial assistance funding. If you receive funding, you're required to include the PID in the research and development outputs you create and provide to DOE when reporting those outputs.

Individuals required to submit Biographical Sketch and Current and/or Pending (Other) Support disclosures must provide a PID in such disclosures as part of the application. Included PIDs must meet the common/core standards specified in the NSPM-33 Implementation Guidance or successor guidance (e.g., an ORCID iD). The inclusion of an individual's PID will be optional until May 1, 2025, and mandatory thereafter.

All federal and contractor employees and financial assistance recipients that conduct research and development (R&D) work must obtain a PID for themselves. Federal and contractor employees conducting only classified R&D work, or those employees who do not conduct R&D work, are not required to have a PID for themselves.

A persistent identifier for individuals must meet the PID definition included in the OSTP Public Access Memo and the common/core standard specified in the NSPM-33 Implementation Guidance. ORCID iDs are currently the only PIDs for individuals/people that meet those requirements. ORCID iDs allow people to distinguish themselves from others. Individuals can connect their ORCID iDs with professional information (e.g., employment, education, professional activities, funding, and R&D outputs) creating an ORCID record similar to an online CV. This guidance will be updated if additional providers of PIDs for individuals, that meet these requirements, become available.

There is no cost to an individual to get a PID for themselves.

You can register for an ORCID iD for yourself by visiting https://orcid.org/register. All you need is an email address and given name to register.

The PID must be used by federal and contractor employees and financial assistance recipients in published R&D outputs when that option is available. For example, when publishing a journal article - if the journal publisher accepts ORCID iDs with authors, and the employee/recipient is an author on the publication, they must provide their ORCID iD. The PID/ORCID iD must also be provided to DOE OSTI in R&D outputs/scientific and technical information metadata records.

PIDs associated with accepted manuscripts, scientific data, technical reports, and scientific software must be provided to OSTI with the metadata record if there is one already assigned to the scientific and technical information (STI). If a PID for scientific data, technical reports, and scientific software records is not provided, OSTI will assign a digital object identifier (DOI) to those STI.

Digital object identifiers (DOIs) are the PID most commonly used and associated with STI. Journal publishers typically assign DOIs to journal articles. Data and software repositories often assign PIDs to those STI records and commonly assign DOIs.

DOE is expected to include PIDs for organizations in metadata describing R&D outputs.

DOE OSTI will be adding PIDs for organizations within the metadata describing R&D outputs. DOE OSTI has developed an organization authority that will be used to systematically add organization PIDs associated with the organizations provided in author affiliation, research organization, and sponsoring organization metadata fields.

There are multiple PIDs for organizations that meet the US Government definition of a PID. Research Organizations Registry Identifiers (ROR IDs) are commonly used within the research community and are included in DOE OSTI's organization authority.