Digital Identifier Systems: Comparative Evaluation

Identifier is one of the main elements in identifying an object in digital environment. Digital identifier systems were developed followed by a lot of problems such as violation of persistency and uniqueness of physical identifiers and URL in digital environment. These identifiers try to guarantee uniqueness and persistency of hostnames by using indirect names for Domain Name System (DNS). The main objective of this research is to identify qualified digital identifier system among other systems. To achieve the research objective, researchers have considered two major steps: first, identifying main criteria for distinguishing digital identifier based on literature review and focus group interview; and second, performing a comparative evaluation on common identifier systems in the world. Findings of first step demonstrated seven main criteria in three domains for distinguishing digital identifier systems: identifier uniqueness and persistency in the identifier features domain, digital identification, digital uniqueness, digital persistency and digital actionability in the digital coverage domain, and globality in the comprehensiveness of scope domain. In the second step, results of the comparative evaluation on common identifier systems indicated that six identifier systems, included, DOI, Handle, UCI, URN, ARK and PURL, are appropriate choices for using as a digital identifier system. Also, according to these results, three identification systems Including NBN, MARIAM and ISNI were identified as suitable choices for digital identification in certain specialized fields. According to many benefits of using these identifiers in important applied fields, such as, digital content chains and networks integration, digital right management, cross referencing, digital libraries and citation analysis, results of this study can help digital environment experts to diagnose digital identifier and their effective use in applied fields.