identifier RiC-A22

Definition

A word, number, letter, symbol, or any combination of these used to uniquely identify or reference an individual instance of an entity within a specific information domain. Can include Global Persistent Identifiers (globally unique and persistently resolvable identifier for the entity) and/or Local Identifiers. Both the domain within which the identifier is unique, and the rules used in forming the identifier value should be provided with the identifier value.

Scope notes

Use only if you don't use Identifier class for handling identifiers. Within a given domain (a closed system), identifiers are used to uniquely reference instances of an entity. Identifiers are instruments of control that facilitate management of the entities within the domain. The formulation of identifiers commonly is based on rules. In addition to an identifier needing to be unique within a domain, it is also highly desirable that it be persistent, that is, that the identifier uniquely identifies the entity over time. A variety of organizations provide rules for the formation of identifiers, and services designed to facilitate the persistence of identifiers. Such identifiers are commonly referred to as Persistent Identifiers (or PIDs). PIDs conform to RFC 3986, but impose additional rules. Common examples are Archival Resource Keys (ARKs) and Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs). Within the global environment of the Internet, there are special rules for the formation of identifiers to ensure that they are unique within the domain of the Internet. Such identifiers must conform to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Uniform Resource Identifier rules (RFC 3986).

Declared on

Also applies to 18 inherited by

Sub-classes that inherit this attribute. Click a subclass to see its full declared-plus-inherited view.

Examples

Records in Contexts-Ontology (RiC-O) v1.1 is published by the International Council on Archives, Expert Group on Archival Description (ICA EGAD), under CC BY 4.0. Source · CC BY 4.0