Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
20.500.12345/example (a generic handle).
- Is an instance
11122/1234 (a German national handle prefix used for repository objects).
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A regular HTTPS URL not registered with the Handle System is not a Handle.
- Not an instance
A UUID is not a Handle even if used as the local suffix of one.
- Not an instance
A DOI is a Handle at the resolution level but is not simply 'a Handle' in ordinary usage — it is a distinct, more constrained naming policy layered on top of the Handle System.
Editorial commentary
The Handle System was developed by the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI) in the 1990s and is the underlying resolution infrastructure for DOI, RAiD, and several other PID systems. Each handle prefix is delegated to an organisation that runs (or contracts) a Local Handle Service. Handle resolution is independent of DNS and supports multiple typed data values per handle (URLs, public keys, free-text metadata). DOIs are a particular naming policy on top of the Handle System administered by the International DOI Foundation.
How prefix delegation works
A Global Handle Registry, operated under CNRI, delegates numeric prefixes (e.g. “20.500.12345”) to organisations, which then run their own Local Handle Service to mint and manage suffixes under that prefix. This two-tier structure is what lets thousands of independent institutions, repositories, and registries each issue their own handles without central coordination of every individual identifier, while resolution still routes through the shared global infrastructure.
Handle vs. DOI
Every DOI resolves through Handle System infrastructure, but not every handle is a DOI: a DOI additionally requires registration with a DOI Registration Agency (Crossref, DataCite, or others), adherence to the DOI naming policy set by the International DOI Foundation, and typically a metadata deposit at a registration agency — none of which a bare, non-DOI handle requires. In practice, institutional repositories that mint their own handle-based identifiers directly (without going through a DOI registration agency) get persistence and resolution but not the citation-metadata ecosystem that comes with a DOI. See the DOI vs. Handle comparison for the practical difference this makes for citing a resource.
References
- Sun S., Lannom L., Boesch B., RFC 3650, ‘Handle System Overview’, IETF, 2003.
- CNRI, ‘Handle.Net Software Documentation’.
Also known as
CNRI Handle · Handle.net identifier
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
<role vocab="credit"
vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
vocab-term="Handle"
vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/handle" />{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "DefinedTerm",
"@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/handle",
"name": "Handle",
"identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/handle",
"description": "An identifier in the CNRI Handle System (RFC 3650-3652), of the form Prefix/Suffix (e.g. 20.500.12345/abcd), resolved by a distributed system of Handle servers that map the identifier to one or more current URLs or other typed data values.",
"inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/persistent-identifiers#set",
"url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/handle",
"alternateName": [
"CNRI Handle",
"Handle.net identifier"
],
"license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"publisher": {
"@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
},
"author": {
"@id": "https://casrai.org/#editorial-team"
},
"datePublished": "2026-05-21T02:10:37",
"dateModified": "2026-09-05T14:22:41",
"inLanguage": "en-GB",
"isAccessibleForFree": true
}
