PIDP (CASRAI)
Persistent Identifier Stewardship Certification — Professional
What you earn
The credential itself
Pass the examination and CASRAI issues this certificate and the post-nominal PIDP (CASRAI), signed by the Programme Director and verifiable by anyone, permanently, from the code on its face.
CASRAI Certification
Certificate of Professional Competence
This is to certify that
Dr. Amelia R. Hartley
has completed the prescribed programme of study and passed the examination in
Persistent Identifier Stewardship — Professional
and is admitted to the designationPIDP (CASRAI)
Certifications
PIDP (CASRAI) — Persistent Identifier Stewardship, Professional
CASRAI·Issued Mar 2026·Credential ID CASRAI-PID-2026-6MJQ1V
casrai.org/verify/CASRAI-PID-2026-6MJQ1V
Every certificate is issued under the signature of Dr. Diana Nieves Castro, MD, Programme Director of CASRAI Certification, who sets the syllabus, blueprint and pass mark for this credential.
It certifies that its holder passed the CASRAI examination for this course on the date shown, scored against the blueprint and pass mark published on this page — and anyone can confirm it from the verification code, without an account and without contacting us.
About this credential
What it covers
Body of knowledge
Exam blueprint
The exam is assembled to these weights on every attempt. They are published before purchase because a blueprint you cannot see is not a blueprint.
| Domain | Proportion of exam | Weight | Items |
|---|---|---|---|
| The PID landscape, principles and governance1 | 10%≈ 1 item | ≈ 1 | |
| Researcher identifiers: ORCID in depth2 | 20%≈ 1 item | ≈ 1 | |
| Organisation and funder identifiers3 | 13%≈ 1 item | ≈ 1 | |
| Output identifiers: DOIs, Crossref and DataCite4 | 18%≈ 1 item | ≈ 1 | |
| Identifying projects, samples, software and instruments5 | 9%≈ 1 item | ≈ 1 | |
| Disambiguation, metadata quality and the PID graph6 | 16%≈ 1 item | ≈ 1 | |
| Institutional PID strategy, rollout and governance7 | 9%≈ 1 item | ≈ 1 | |
| PIDs, national policy and research security8 | 5%≈ 1 item | ≈ 1 | |
| Total | 100% | 7 |
Item counts are approximate. Each attempt draws a fresh form to the weights above, so the exact number of items per domain varies between attempts.
Syllabus
10 modules, 10 lessons
Every lesson and every learning outcome is listed. The lesson bodies open on enrolment; nothing else about the course is withheld.
10 modules · 10 lessons · 80 h
Lesson material opens once you are enrolled. The full syllabus and every learning outcome are shown here so you can judge the coverage before you pay.
Module 1
M1
1 lesson · 6 h
- Locked.The PID landscape, principles and governance6 h · Locked
On completion you will be able to
- By the end of this module the learner can:
- State the properties an identifier must have to be persistent, and explain why persistence is an organisational commitment rather than a technical property.
- Distinguish identifier, locator and name.
- Match each entity class in the research ecosystem to the identifier schemes that serve it.
- Evaluate a registry's governance, funding and sustainability before an institution becomes dependent on it.
Module 2
M2
1 lesson · 8 h
- Locked.ORCID: the registry, the record, the permission model8 h · Locked
On completion you will be able to
- Describe ORCID's organisational and funding model accurately.
- Navigate every section of an ORCID record and state what each holds.
- Explain visibility settings and their consequence for institutional integrations.
- Explain the trusted-organisation permission model and the meaning of an authenticated iD.
- Distinguish the public API from member APIs and select the minimum permission scope for a stated use case.
Module 3
M3
1 lesson · 10 h
- Locked.ORCID: institutional integration in practice10 h · Locked
On completion you will be able to
- Design an institutional ORCID integration end to end, including collection point, scopes, storage and write-back.
- Implement and interpret a coverage report that separates authenticated from asserted iDs.
- Advise a researcher on record hygiene, duplicates and visibility.
- Handle duplicate, deceased, disputed and abandoned records correctly.
- Evaluate an ORCID membership or consortium arrangement against an institution's needs.
Module 4
M4
1 lesson · 8 h
- Locked.Organisation and funder identifiers8 h · Locked
On completion you will be able to
- Reconcile affiliation strings to ROR at scale and report the residue honestly.
- Decide how an internal hierarchy should relate to ROR records.
- Prepare a request for a new or corrected ROR record.
- Advise on funder identification given the announced Funder Registry deprecation.
Module 5
M5
1 lesson · 12 h
- Locked.DOIs, Crossref and DataCite: choosing and operating12 h · Locked
On completion you will be able to
- Choose the appropriate registration agency for a given output class and justify the choice against the schema and community norms.
- Compose valid, complete metadata for registration.
- Design a DOI policy covering granularity, versioning and tombstoning.
- Diagnose a failed or defective registration.
- Assess metadata completeness and plan remediation.
Module 6
M6
1 lesson · 6 h
- Locked.Projects, samples, software and instruments6 h · Locked
On completion you will be able to
- Select an identifier scheme for a project, sample, software release or instrument and state what it guarantees.
- Explain the significance of the project layer in the PID graph.
- Analyse the IGSN–DataCite transition as a case in identifier-scheme migration.
Module 7
M7
1 lesson · 8 h
- Locked.Name disambiguation and its failure modes8 h · Locked
On completion you will be able to
- Diagnose a disambiguation failure from the metadata record.
- Explain why algorithmically assigned author identifiers do not solve the problem.
- Analyse the unequal distribution of disambiguation failure across research communities and propose mitigations.
Module 8
M8
1 lesson · 8 h
- Locked.Metadata quality and the PID graph8 h · Locked
On completion you will be able to
- Trace a connection through the PID graph and explain what it enables.
- Identify where a metadata chain has broken and who can repair it.
- Measure and report identifier coverage and metadata completeness honestly.
- Evaluate what an aggregator says about an institution.
Module 9
M9
1 lesson · 8 h
- Locked.Institutional PID strategy, rollout and governance8 h · Locked
On completion you will be able to
- Write an institutional PID strategy.
- Plan a rollout as a change programme.
- Draft a PID policy suitable for approval.
- Construct a business case for membership fees.
- Decide and justify a response to a researcher who refuses.
Module 10
M10
1 lesson · 6 h
- Locked.PIDs, national policy and research security6 h · Locked
On completion you will be able to
- State accurately the five areas of the NSPM-33 Implementation Guidance and locate digital persistent identifiers among them.
- Analyse the tension between researcher-controlled identifiers and compliance-verification uses.
- Advise an institution on what identifier data can and cannot evidence for disclosure purposes.
- Assess the status of a national PID policy before relying on it.
Assessment
How the exam works
The exam is closed-book and multiple choice. Each attempt draws a fresh form to the domain weights above, so no two attempts are the same paper and no answer key circulates. The pass mark is 70% and is fixed — there is no curve, no quota and no adjustment by cohort.
Scoring is immediate. You are shown your overall result and, for every item, the option you chose, the correct option and the reasoning behind it — whether you passed or not. A failed attempt may be retaken after 90 days. The wait exists so a retake is a second attempt at the material rather than a second attempt at remembering the paper.
Forms are assembled to the blueprint above or not at all: where a domain cannot yet be sampled to that standard, the exam declines to start rather than issue an unbalanced paper. Your material and progress are never affected, and there is no time limit on when you sit.
Passing candidates are issued a certificate with a verification code. Anyone can check that code on our public verification page without an account and without contacting us.
Certifying authority
Signed by Dr. Diana Nieves Castro, MD
CASRAI’s certification programme is academically and medically directed by Dr. Diana Nieves Castro, MD, Programme Director, who sets the syllabus and blueprint for this credential and signs every certificate issued under it.
CASRAI has maintained the terminology and reporting standards of research administration for over a decade. It assumed leadership of the CRediT contributor-roles taxonomy in 2014 and carried it through to adoption as ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022, now in use by publishers, funders and institutions worldwide. This examination is drawn from that body of work.
What the credential certifies: that its holder passed the CASRAI examination for this course on the date shown, scored against the blueprint and pass mark published above — verifiable by anyone, permanently, from the code on its face.
