Version History

PILIN Project Policy

Citation of Handles within PILIN documentation

To cite the latest version of this work use http://resolver.net.au/hdl/102.100.272/R67T0T0QH

To cite this version of this work, use http://resolver.net.au/hdl/102.100.272/HS0W13DQH

1 Purpose/Issue

This policy specifies how Handles will be cited in documentation and communications created by the PILIN project.

2 Background

There are several ways of citing a handle. The PILIN project wishes to balance the following citation requirements. The citation should be:

1. Resolvable. That is, the citation invokes a service that resolves the Handle.

2. Actionable in common web browsers. That is, the citation should be ‘clickable’ in common web browsers.

3. Persistent. That is, the citation should provide reliable action over time.

4. Respectful of the Handle owner’s citation policy.

Balancing these requirements sometimes necessitates the use of multiple citation encodings.

3 Scope

This policy applies to any handle cited in documentation or communications created by the PILIN project.

4 Policy Statement

The policy has three components: a general policy for citing Handles in PILIN project documentation, a policy for citing Handles managed by the PILIN project, and a policy for citing Handles that are not managed by the PILIN project.

4.1 General Handle citation policy

Where practical, Handles should be cited in PILIN Project documentation and communications in both a URI encoding and a resolvable HTTP URI encoding. The encodings are specified in the definitions section below.

Where it is not practical to cite a handle in both URI and resolvable HTTP URI encodings, the PILIN Project shall use one or the other citation alternatives depending on whether the primary requirement is persistent identification or resolvability. When the primary requirement is persistence of citation, the URI encoding shall be used. When the primary requirement is web resolvability of citations, the resolvable HTTP URI encoding shall be used.

4.2 Citing Handles from the PILIN Handle namespace

Handles from the PILIN Project 102.100.272 namespace shall be cited according to the general Handle citation policy described above.

Additionally, Handles under the PILIN Project 102.100.272 namespace shall use http://resolver.net.au/hdl as the HTTP Handle resolver for citation using the HTTP URI encoding. There is an intention that the HTTP Handle resolver at http://resolver.net.au/hdl will be persistent.

4.3 Citing Handles from non-PILIN Handle namespaces

Handles from non-PILIN Project namespaces shall be cited according to the general Handle citation policy described above.

For Handles from non-PILIN Project namespaces that are cited using the HTTP URI encoding, the HTTP Handle resolver shall be

• the HTTP Handle resolver recommended by the Handle owner,

• or http://hdl.handle.net if the Handle owner does not recommend a HTTP Handle resolver

5 Definitions

The Handle URI encoding shall be of the form

"hdl:" <handle prefix> "/" <handle suffix>

as specified in the Path Encoding syntax of [1].

The Handle resolvable HTTP URI encoding shall be of the form

"http://" <resolver> "/" <handle prefix> "/" <handle suffix>

as specified by the HTTP URI Encoding and Protocol Processing syntax of [1], and where <resolver> shall be a HTTP Handle resolver recommended for citations by the Handle owner.

6 Examples

The handle 102.100.272/0N8J991QH is a Handle in the PILIN project namespace and so will be cited in PILIN Project documentation as:

hdl:102.100.272/0N8J991QH

http://resolver.net.au/hdl/102.100.272/0N8J991QH

The handle 10.1045/january2007-ward is managed by the DLIB journal, so PILIN Project documentation will cite it using the citation policy for DLIB journal:

doi:10.1045/january2007-ward

http://dx.doi.org/10.1045/january2007-ward

7 References

[1] Encoding CORDRA™ Identifiers in URI Syntax, hdl:2000.01/FFEE9F72B00C4189B137ECD34188B94E http://hdl.handle.net/2000.01/FFEE9F72B00C4189B137ECD34188B94E

Copyright © Monash University

This work was created as part of the PILIN project. The PILIN project is funded by the Australian Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training, (DEST) under the Systemic Infrastructure Initiative (SII) as part of the Commonwealth Government’s Backing Australia’s Ability – An Innovation Action Plan for the Future (BAA) under the ARROW Project.