Overview
The PIDGraph services are designed to facilitate the exposure and usage of Persistent Identifier (PID) metadata and connections, centred around a trusted source.
In this instance, the core data of the graph is made up of Digital Object Identifier (DOI) metadata held by DataCite, one of the main DOI Registration Agencies (RAs).
The network of the graph is built around the relationships connecting one DOI to another, and also outwards from DOIs to other established and trusted PIDs within the research community — including:
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Open Researcher and Contributor IDs (ORCiDs) for people
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Research Organisation Registry (ROR) identifiers for institutions
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Domain-specific persistent identifiers such as zbMATH Article Identifiers
During FAIRCORE4EOSC, work was done to:
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Enhance the performance and functionalities of the APIs available for accessing the data
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Generate and publish data files of the node metadata and vertices
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Develop a statistics reporting tool
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Ingest new data into the graph from project partners
The PIDGraph helps researchers by:
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Exposing the metadata of research outputs for reuse and aggregation by other EOSC partners and services, as well as the wider scholarly community
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Enabling tracking and reporting of citations and references through the addition of datasets containing the links between PIDs, alongside other relationships between research outputs
By leveraging a common schema, the data is easily ingested.
By using machine-readable APIs such as GraphQL, integration can be automated, ensuring a streamlined method of working with the PIDGraph data.
The PIDGraph provides several APIs for accessing the data, including a:
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REST API
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GraphQL API
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OAI-PMH API
In addition, the graph data is regularly published in two datasets:
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One comprising the metadata for nodes in the graph
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The other containing the vertices of the graph
These services are built on top of DataCite's existing open infrastructure and data.
Access to the graph data is also possible through the web frontend of DataCite Commons, allowing:
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Interactive browsing through the data
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Visualisation of relationships and metadata aggregations
Enhancement of the graph data is achieved by:
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The ingestion of metadata from external sources, via dedicated APIs and the common OAI-PMH framework
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The inclusion of PID to PID links from this metadata into the graph
Usage Statistics reporting for DOIs is made:
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Via regular COUNTER-compliant reports to a dedicated service
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Or by using a JavaScript widget directly on the resource's landing page to submit real-time usage statistics to the PIDGraph
By increasing the availability and interoperability of PID metadata, the PIDGraph services help to increase the use and utility of scholarly research outputs and enrich systems and services in the wider community.
By publishing data on the relationships between PIDs, the availability of citation information is enhanced, providing benefit to researchers and institutions.
By ingesting data from other trusted sources, the size and scope of the graph is increased, producing downstream benefits to users of the graph data when working with the PIDGraph services.
