Identifiers.org documentation

Welcome to the Identifiers.org documentation!

Identifiers.org is an established resolving system that enables the referencing of data for the scientific community, with a current focus on the Life Sciences domain but open to all areas of research. It handles persistent identifiers in the form of URIs and CURIEs. This allows the referencing of data in both a location-independent and resource-dependent manner. The provision of resolvable identifiers (URLs) fits well with the Semantic Web vision, and the Linked Data initiative.

If you wish to reference data, a quick read about our resolving mechanism and the identification scheme will greatly help you. Our FAQ also provides some more information. Most of the time, you should be able to generate links on your own, but we are here to help through our helpdesk email and our GitHub issue board.

This web page contains resources to help users and developers working with the platform. We will continue adding information here as we expand and document the services. For recent updates, check our list of updates. If you can't find what you are looking for, feel free to contact us.

We have kept things as backwards compatible as possible in the platform, but there has been some changes from the previous version. If you are interested in a detailed list of differences, please take a look at the

Key facts

  • Resolvable identifiers: the system provides resolvable identifiers in the form of Compact Identifiers and URIs.
  • Location independent: the system is able to decouple the identification of records from the physical locations on the web where they can be retrieved.
  • Free to use: there is no cost involved to register or use the identifiers or this facility.
  • Granularity of identifiers: identifiers available at multiple levels (data collections, resources and data entities).
  • Customisable behaviours: the URI system can be tailored to needs in terms of formats available and preferred resolving locations.
  • Community driven: we rely upon the community to drive and direct development, as well as to contribute new data collections.
  • Curated resource: dedicated curators and community feedback ensure that information in the Registry remains up-to-date and accurate.
  • Reliable: there is an automated link monitoring system that checks registered resources daily.
  • Unrestricted scope: currently focused on Life Sciences, but the scope is potentially unlimited (community feedback dependent).

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