EZID (easy-eye-dee) is a service that makes it simple for digital object producers (researchers and others) to obtain and manage long-term identifiers for their digital content. EZID has these core functions:

• Create a persistent identifier: DOI or ARK
• Add object location
• Add metadata
• Update object location
• Update object metadata

Why use EZID?

You do data-intensive research and write papers based on it. You want to refer to the dataset right now even though you haven't yet found a permanent "home" for the data. (It's still on your desktop.) You can register the dataset now with EZID. You'll get a clickable reference you can use in your paper. You're just starting to build a second dataset, and you use EZID to get a preservation-ready identifier for it even before you have any data. When your papers are published and you move your data, you can update the metadata associated with the permanent ID, and the clickable reference will still work. When a paper begins to get cited by others, even if you move the data again, as long as you update the metadata again, the clickable reference will always work!

You are part of a research team studying language change. You work with a regional humanities research center where a data federation is hosted. The center's data services harvest metadata from your database. Right now, your database is stored on your departmental web server, but the server is getting old, and your chairman has announced that the department is considering moving all data storage to "cloud storage." You can use the EZID services to register an identifier now and circulate that clickable address to your colleagues and to the entire data federation. When your department completes its transition to the cloud, you use EZID again to update the location details so that references to your database continues to work perfectly.

You are a molecular biology researcher/educator who has published extensively in the field. You use the EZID services to allocate identifiers to your work, the datasets that accompany and inform your published articles. You are planning an exit strategy and go into research full time in private industry, with a genetic engineering firm that has made you a generous offer. You plan to move your datasets with you. You use the EZID services again to update the location details, and there is no interruption of access to your data via the original identifiers.

You have received a research grant from the National Science Foundation. As part of your grant requirements, you must submit a formal data management plan. The data management plan will save you time and resources in the long run and ensure that your data will be usable in the future. A key component of the plan is naming and organizing your files, and EZID services can help you. Register your files with EZID from the beginning. As your work progresses, if you need to move your files, as long as you update the metadata, the clickable references will continue to work.

Please contact us with any questions or comments.