PIDfest 26

Scientific instruments are fundamental research assets that enable the production of scientific knowledge. Despite their central role in the research lifecycle, instruments are still largely absent from the persistent identifier (PID) ecosystem and remain weakly represented in the scholarly record. As a result, instruments are oftentimes difficult to discover, to reference, and to connect to the research outputs they generate. Strengthening the integration of scientific instruments into the PID landscape is therefore an important step towards keeping research knowledge connected across infrastructures and research entities.

The service Materials Instruments addresses this gap by developing an open, community-oriented infrastructure that improves the discoverability, interoperability, and reuse of scientific instruments in materials science. The service contributes to strengthening FAIR research infrastructures by enabling structured instrument metadata, persistent identification, and connections to related research outputs.

Materials Instruments is a new service of the FID Materials Science (Specialised Information Service Materials Science, https://www.materials-science.info/). The project is developed in collaboration with SLUB Dresden and TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology, combining expertise in research data infrastructures, metadata standards, and PID services.

A key objective of the service is to integrate instrument information from different institutional and technical contexts into a unified discovery environment. The platform aims at including instrument metadata from multiple data providers such as research institutions, laboratories, and existing infrastructure catalogues. By harmonizing heterogeneous metadata and aligning them with emerging community standards such as PIDINST, Materials Instruments contributes to improving interoperability across research infrastructures and supports the integration of instruments as first-class research entities within the PID ecosystem.

Persistent identifiers play a central role in this effort. The planned assignment of DOIs to instrument records will enable persistent referencing and citation of scientific instruments and support cross-linking between instruments, publications, datasets, and research institutions. This strengthens connections between research infrastructure and scholarly outputs and contributes to a more comprehensive and interconnected scholarly record.

In this talk, we present practical implementation steps from the development of the service, including metadata aggregation from heterogeneous sources, alignment with PID infrastructures, and approaches for linking instruments with other research entities across institutional boundaries. We will also discuss lessons learned from the early development phase, including challenges related to metadata quality, licensing and openness requirements, governance questions, and community adoption.

By sharing our experiences, we aim to contribute to the broader PID community discussion on how additional research entities - such as scientific instruments - can be sustainably integrated into the PID ecosystem. Our work highlights the importance of cross-infrastructure collaboration, community engagement, and interoperable metadata practices for advancing PID adoption and for keeping knowledge connected across the research landscape.