Unique identifiers (DOI, ISBN, ISSN, ORCID)

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Bibliographic codes such as DOI, ISBN and ISSN are used to uniquely, exclusive, unalterably and durably identify printed or digital publishing products, intellectual works or identities related to the world of communication and publishing.

The ORCID code, on the other hand, is used for the unique identification of researchers' names through a stable, non-proprietary numeric code.

DOI, ISBN or ISSN are required in the procedures for the evaluation of scientific research results (VQR): it is important, therefore, to always indicate these codes when entering research products in FLORE.

Finally, bibliographic codes meet FAIR principles, which are necessary to make research data traceable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.

DOI

An acronym for Digital Object Identifier, it is an international standard that allows, with an alphanumeric code consisting of a standardized syntax (a prefix and a suffix separated by a slash), the durable and unique identification of a digital object (article, journal, ebook, doctoral thesis, database, dataset).

Each DOI is associated with a set of metadata related to the content (title, author, publication date, copyright, price, etc.) and its place in the context of the publishing offer (the belonging of a title to a series, of an article to a serial publication, the availability of the same content in multiple formats and media, etc.).

Requests for DOI assignment for titles or individual contributions within a book or journal are generally submitted by major scholarly publishers of digital products to the Federation of Agencies coordinated by the International DOI Foundation, a nonprofit organization and registration authority. The agencies provide technical support and ensure the preservation, quality and integrity of metadata and the DOI system.

From the International DOI Foundation website, it is possible to verify the accuracy of a DOI.

ISBN

Acronym for International Standard Book Number, it is a number consisting of a 13-digit code that uniquely and durably identifies internationally a title or an edition of a title from a particular publisher. ISBN is attributed to the book, however with the evolution of technologies it can be applied, also to non-book products or formats (multimedia publications, electronic publications, personal computer software, maps, Braille publications, etc.).

Normally the ISBN code is chargeable and must be requested from the Italian ISBN Agency , except in cases of occasional publications by noncommercial publishers.

The ISBN code is required in the evaluation of research products for VQR and ASN.

ISSN

Acronym for International Standard Serial Number is an 8-digit number, which identifies periodicals, journals, newspapers, yearbooks, monographic series, and all other types of serial publications whether printed or electronic. Specifically, it identifies the title of the entire serial publication and not the individual issue of a journal or series.

ISSN numbers are assigned, for a fee, in a progressive manner by the ISSN National Centers coordinated by the ISSN International Centre; for Italy they are assigned by the Italian ISSN Center at the CNR.

The ISSN code is required in the evaluation of research products for VQR and ASN.

ORCID

Acronym for Open Researcher and Contributor ID, is a numerical code used to uniquely identify a researcher. It is assigned free of charge, during registration on the site, by the open, nonprofit association with the same name.

Assigning a unique personal code addresses the need to solve problems of possible homonyms and to properly link an author to his or her scientific output is also employed by many publishers (example PLoS, Nature and Elsevier) and is compatible with ResearcherID, Clarivate's registration system integrated with Web of Science. Authors registered in both databases can therefore manage and update their profiles more easily. Authors who do not have the ID can get it quickly by registering on the ORCID website.