FASEB Comments on NIH Plan for Use of Metadata and Persistent Identifiers

By: Yvette Seger
Thursday, February 13, 2025
On February 5, FASEB transmitted its comments in response to a Request for Information (RFI) seeking input on the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) plan to enhance findability and transparency of research results through the use of metadata and Persistent Identifiers (PIDs). This plan reflects NIH’s continuing efforts to fulfill the goals of the 2022 White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Memorandum, Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research.

While generally supportive of the proposed plan, FASEB highlighted several areas that could be enhanced toward its intended goals and improve clarity regarding expectations for investigators. This includes encouraging the use of digital object identifiers (DOIs) and ORCiD identifiers in grant applications and progress reporting and updating the section on citing and cross-linking metadata and PIDs to clarify appropriate authoritative sources for adding research outputs to their ORCiD profile. FASEB also encouraged NIH to consider the adoption of DOIs for research grant awards as a way to maximize access to, use of, and connections between research outputs.

NIH is accepting comments on this RFI through February 21, 2025. Feedback must be submitted through this response form.