science

Identifiers.org

Identifiers.org is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Identifiers.org rather than just read about it. In short: Identifiers.org is a project providing stable and perennial identifiers for data records used in the Life Sciences. The identifiers are provided in the form of Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs).

Key takeaways

Identifiers.org belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Identifiers.org to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Identifiers.org from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Identifiers.org is a project providing stable and perennial identifiers for data records used in the Life Sciences. The identifiers are provided in the form of Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs). It is also a resolving system that relies on collections listed in the MIRIAM Registry to provide direct access to different instances of the identified records.

URIs and resolving system The Identifiers.org URIs are perennial identifiers, that specify at once the data collection, using the namespaces of the Registry, and the record identifier within the collection in the form of a unique resolvable URI. The Identifiers.org resolving system is built upon the information stored in the MIRIAM Registry, which is a database that stores namespaces assigned to commonly used data collections (databases and ontologies) for the Life Sciences. It transforms an Identifiers.org URI into the various URLs leading to the various instances of the record identified by the URI. Identifiers.org is part of the ELIXIR Interoperability Platform.

Identifier structure An Identifiers.org URI is formed of several parts:

Protocol. Identifiers.org URIs are HTTP URIs and start with "http:/" Data collection. These are namespaces listed in the MIRIAM Registry. For instance "pubmed" for the publication resource PubMed, "ec-code" for the enzyme nomenclature and "go" for gene ontology Record in the collection. For instance "9606" is "3-fluorotoluene" in the collection PubChem, it is "Homo sapiens" in the collection "taxonomy" and it is a social science publication in the collection "pubmed". Optional: Identifiers.org URIs can be suffixed with parameters, for instance imposing which resource to use for resolving, "profiles" that control the resolver's behaviour etc.

Usage The system allows a consistent and uniform annotation of datasets. This in turn facilitates data alignment and integration. Identifiers.org URIs are used to encode the metadata in the standard formats of the COMBINE initiative, such as SBML. In particular, databases such as BioModels Database and Reactome export their data in SBML with cross-references encoded using Identifiers.org URIs. These URIs are also used in various semantic web projects such as Bio2RDF, Open PHACTS and the EBI RDF platform Identifiers.org is part of the Interoperability Platform of the European life-sciences Infrastructure for biological Information.

Comparison with other URI systems Identifiers.org URIs have been developed since 2011 as a resolvable version of the MIRIAM identifiers, developed since 2005, which were of a URN form, and not directly resolvable. Identifiers.org URIs are similar to PURLs, albeit providing alternative resolutions for collections with several instances. They are also similar to DOIs, but provide human readable collection names, and re-use the record identifier assigned by the data provider.

See also MIRIAM Registry BioModels SBML CellML LSID Digital object identifier Persistent uniform resource locator

References

External links identifiers.org website standards of the COMBINE initiative Open PHACTS, the Open Pharmacological Space

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Identifiers.org

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Identifiers.org claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Identifiers.org before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Identifiers.org ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Identifiers.org

In research: Identifiers.org appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Identifiers.org in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Identifiers.org is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Bioinformatics, Identifiers, Metadata, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Identifiers.org outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Identifiers.org in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Identifiers.org means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Identifiers.org out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Identifiers.org in simple terms?

Identifiers.org is a project providing stable and perennial identifiers for data records used in the Life Sciences. The identifiers are provided in the form of Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs).

Why does Identifiers.org matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Identifiers.org?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Identifiers.org.