PIDINST

PIDINST

A persistent identifier for a research instrument, minted under a DataCite DOI or Handle, conforming to the PIDINST metadata schema developed by an RDA Working Group, that enables citation of and provenance back to the instrument that produced data.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 21 May 2026

PIDINST emerged from the Research Data Alliance Persistent Identification of Instruments Working Group (2017-2019). The schema covers instrument identifier, owner, manufacturer, model, instrument type, and related identifiers (e.g. the lab’s ROR ID, ORCID of the responsible scientist). Multiple registration agencies (DataCite, ePIC) can mint PIDINST-compliant identifiers. Use cases include attribution of instrument time to facility funding, linking measurements to calibration history, and citing instruments in datasets.

References

S
t
o
c
k
e
r
M
.
e
t
a
l
.
,
‘
P
e
r
s
i
s
t
e
n
t
I
d
e
n
t
i
f
i
c
a
t
i
o
n
o
f
I
n
s
t
r
u
m
e
n
t
s
‘
,
D
a
t
a
S
c
i
e
n
c
e
J
o
u
r
n
a
l
1
9
(
1
8
)
,
2
0
2
0
.
R
D
A
P
I
D
I
N
S
T
W
G
,
‘
F
i
n
a
l
r
e
c
o
m
m
e
n
d
a
t
i
o
n
s
o
n
p
e
r
s
i
s
t
e
n
t
i
d
e
n
t
i
f
i
c
a
t
i
o
n
o
f
i
n
s
t
r
u
m
e
n
t
s
‘
(
r
d
–
a
l
l
i
a
n
c
e
.
o
r
g
)
.

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="PIDINST"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/pidinst" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "name": "PIDINST",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/pidinst",
  "description": "A persistent identifier for a research instrument, minted under a DataCite DOI or Handle, conforming to the PIDINST metadata schema developed by an RDA Working Group, that enables citation of and provenance back to the instrument that produced data.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/the-persistent-identifier-ecosystem/",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/pidinst",
  "sameAs": [
    "Instrument PID",
    "Persistent identifier for instruments"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}

Worked examples

Looks similar, but isn't

References

Use in your systems