Practice Research: Persistent identifiers

Persistent identifiers (PIDs) aim to be a unique long-lasting reference to digital objects of various types and are a core element of open research.

PIDs are labels that locate, identify and share information about digital objects. They allow different platforms to exchange information consistently and unambiguously and therefore provide a reliable way to track citations and reuse of research outputs. They are fundamental in making practice research outputs discoverable and interoperable.

DOI stands for Digital Object Identifier. Each DOI is a permanent and unique digital identifier that can be applied to and used to identify any digital object or item. 

Because DOIs are more stable links than URLs, they make it easier to locate and retrieve works via search engines. Using URLs in webpages or documents presents the risk that, if documents move, people following the link will arrive at a dead page, whereas a DOI will always point to the research item.

DOIs allow other researchers to easily and accurately cite the work. Because a DOI is a unique string of characters it is also easy to analyse where it is cited and shared in research publications, social media and news sources. An entire ecosystem has developed around the identification and analysis of DOIs. For example, Altmetric analyses social media and news outlets DOI references to provide metrics that allow researchers to find out where their work is being cited and reused.

DOIs in practice research

DOIs are commonly created for text-based academic outputs such as journal articles, books, theses and datasets but can also be minted for non-text outputs.

Persistent identifiers such as DOIs are fundamental in making practice research outputs discoverable and interoperable. At Goldsmiths we have started to experiment with minting DOIs for research outputs such as:

Video works: Cernusakova, Barbora and Brandon, Janet. 2023. Debt Machine. https://doi.org/10.25602/GOLD.00034120 

Audio works such as podcasts: Nolas, Sevasti-Melissa and Varvantakis, Christos. 2018. ERC Connectors Study Podcast Series. https://doi.org/10.25602/GOLD.00027367; Atkins, Guy and Bulley, James. 2014. 20 Years of Archive Fever. https://doi.org/10.25602/GOLD.00010843 

Printed ephemera: Grant, Catherine. 2022. Responding to Women and Creativity. 
https://doi.org/10.25602/GOLD.00030894

Getting a DOI

We can create DOIs for items within GRO. Outputs must meet the following requirements to be minted:

• The work must have at least one Goldsmiths researcher as a creator.
• The work must be represented on GRO with a text, image, audio or video file uploaded to the record.
• The work must not already have been assigned a DOI.

When the DOI is live it will always point to the output on GRO rather than another site where the output is also hosted (such as a Vimeo page or a gallery website) and the DOI will also be identified as a Goldsmiths item as it will contain the GOLD prefix (10.25602/GOLD). Therefore, if the output includes contributions from researchers based at other institutions it is important to check that they are happy for it to be identified as a Goldsmiths item where the DOI will always redirect to the GRO record.

Typically, a DOI is minted when an output is in its final form so once a DOI is live, we advise against making any substantial edits to the work and its GRO record. Practice research outputs can be the result of long-term projects that change and develop over time, so we advise minting a DOI at a point when you are confident that the output is in its final form.

Please email gro@gold.ac.uk if you would like more advice on getting a DOI for your research.

ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher. You can connect your ORCID with your professional information such as affiliations, grants, publications and peer review activities.

It is a way to distinguish you and your research from others, as well as aggregate it all in one place. It works as a CV of your work and your employment and can be a useful way to keep your research information up to date. It is often used by funders and publishers, so it is useful to get one now if you don’t have one already.

In 2025, ORCID released details of a new set of work types that aim to make their records more usable for practice research scholars by expanding the number of work type categories that can be recorded. The new work types include categories for design, image, moving image, sound and musical composition.

Further information on how to register for an ORCID is available here.

You can link your research outputs on GRO to your ORCID account. Guidance on connecting your ORCID account to GRO is available here.

RAiD (Research Activity Identifier)

RAiD is an emerging persistent identifier specifically for research projects. It acts as a container for the activities carried out throughout a research project, collecting identifiers for people, outputs, instruments and institutions that are involved to give a full picture of the impact of a project.

The PRVoices project considered the suitability of RAiD to capture practice research projects. PRVoices and its associated partners will be one of four pathfinder projects working closely with Jisc to ensure the development of RAiD within the UK national context meets the needs of the practice research community.

We are closely monitoring the use of RAiD identifiers within the UK and this page will be updated to reflect ongoing developments with the identifier.

CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy)

CRediT is a taxonomy, including 14 roles, that can be used to represent the roles typically played by contributors to a research output. The roles describe each contributor’s specific contribution.

Founded in scientific research, the CRediT taxonomy grew from an understanding that conventions for describing and listing authors on scholarly outputs were outdated and failed to recognise the range of contributions that researchers make to outputs. 

There has been consultation on broadening the scope of contributors included in the taxonomy. The PRVoices project raised awareness of the practice researcher perspective and the need to reflect a wider range of contributor roles.

We will monitor future efforts to ensure that the perspective of practice researchers is represented by CRediT and this page will be updated to reflect ongoing developments with the identifier.