A networked service that, given a persistent identifier, returns the current location of the named resource (typically by HTTP redirect) or returns its metadata, allowing the identifier itself to remain stable while the resource's location changes.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 10 Jul 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
https://doi.org as the DOI resolver.
Is an instance
https://n2t.net as a multi-scheme PID resolver.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
A search engine returning a result page is not a PID resolution service.
Not an instance
A Google Scholar profile page is not a resolution service for an ORCID iD.

Editorial commentary

Every PID scheme needs at least one resolution service. doi.org runs the central proxy for DOIs (which under the hood is the Handle System); orcid.org is the resolution service for ORCID iDs; n2t.net (Name-to-Thing, operated by California Digital Library) is a generic resolver that handles ARKs, DOIs, Handles, and many other schemes. Resolution services typically support content negotiation so that the same identifier can return either an HTML landing page or machine-readable metadata depending on the Accept header.

References

Kunze J., Calvert S., DeBacker J., Hanlon R., Jordan M., Pentecost C., 'Persistence Statements: Describing Digital Stickiness', Data Science Journal 16(39), 2017.

Also known as

PID resolver

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Resolution service"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/resolution-service" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/resolution-service",
  "name": "Resolution service",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/resolution-service",
  "description": "A networked service that, given a persistent identifier, returns the current location of the named resource (typically by HTTP redirect) or returns its metadata, allowing the identifier itself to remain stable while the resource's location changes.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/persistent-identifiers#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/resolution-service",
  "sameAs": [
    "PID resolver"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-07-10T02:06:20",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Referenced across the research world

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