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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id/>
<journal-title-group>
</journal-title-group>
<issn/>
<publisher>
<publisher-name/>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<title-group>
<article-title>Why try Digital Succession Identifiers</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<contrib-id contrib-id-type="orcid">https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5014-4809</contrib-id>
<name>
<surname>Ellerman</surname>
<given-names>E. Castedo</given-names>
</name>
<email>castedo@castedo.com</email>
</contrib>
</contrib-group>
<pub-date date-type="eprint" publication-format="electronic" iso-8601-date="2022-11-15">
<day>15</day>
<month>11</month>
<year>2022</year>
</pub-date>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>© 2023, Ellerman et al</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2023</copyright-year>
<copyright-holder>Ellerman et al</copyright-holder>
<license license-type="open-access">
<ali:license_ref xmlns:ali="http://www.niso.org/schemas/ali/1.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ali:license_ref>
<license-p>This document is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.</license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<abstract>
<p><bold>STAGE</bold>: Draft.</p>
<p><bold>AUDIENCE</bold>: Researchers capable of signing git commits from the command line who would
like some of their research documents to enjoy new benefits described in this document.</p>
<p><bold>SUMMARY</bold>: The Digital Succession Identifier (DSI) is a new kind of persistent
identifier for bibliographic references. For research communication, a DSI provides
novel benefits such as the identification of research documents that are amendable by
the author.
A DSI together with JATS XML can also provide a new
combination of benefits found in traditional academic publishing, preprint servers and
PubMed Central, while avoiding some of their limitations.</p>
</abstract>
</article-meta>
</front>
<body>
<sec id="introduction">
<title>Introduction</title>
<p>For an author,
a key benefit of a Digital Succession Identifier (DSI) is the ability to
identify content yet to be determined by the author.
At the same time, a DSI also provides one of the great features of academic publishing,
specifically, the ability for other researchers to reference a static archived
article long into the future.
When a DSI is combined with <ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Journal_Article_Tag_Suite">JATS
XML</ext-link>
<xref alt="1" rid="ref-enwikiU003A1107458581" ref-type="bibr">1</xref>,
a new combination of benefits of the current academic publishing ecosystem are enabled:</p>
<list list-type="bullet">
<list-item>
<p>a persistent identifier for bibliographic references (like a
<ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Digital_object_identifier">DOI</ext-link>
<xref alt="2" rid="ref-enwikiU003A1110508394" ref-type="bibr">2</xref>),</p>
</list-item>
<list-item>
<p>an amendable sequence of documents (like versioned preprints),</p>
</list-item>
<list-item>
<p>and a choice of reading format (web page or PDF).</p>
</list-item>
</list>
<p>In addition to that new combination, a DSI also provides completely new benefits in
research communication:</p>
<list list-type="bullet">
<list-item>
<p>a DSI can be author-owned and not tied to any particular website or archive,</p>
</list-item>
<list-item>
<p>fine-grained versioning in the form of <italic>multilevel edition numbering</italic>
(described later in this document), and</p>
</list-item>
<list-item>
<p>a DSI can be created and tied to a document before either is publicly shared.</p>
</list-item>
</list>
</sec>
<sec id="amendable-digital-successions">
<title>Amendable digital successions</title>
<p>Like textbooks and preprints, but not traditional journal articles, digital successions
consist of multiple editions (or versions) of a digital object. A simple initial
application is having the digital objects be PDF files.</p>
<p>A DSI can refer to a specific edition (version) or an entire sequence of editions within
a digital succession. If a DSI refers to a specific edition, that edition does not
change, like with traditional journal articles. For instance,
<bold>dsi:</bold><monospace>aEBkfZe1f4ooWcgt2Qs9gjtmkFo/0.1</monospace> identifies the first archived draft
of this document, edition 0.1. This edition 0.1 will never change.
But if a DSI refers to many editions in a
digital succession, then the author can amend the previous editions.
For example, <bold>dsi:</bold><monospace>aEBkfZe1f4ooWcgt2Qs9gjtmkFo</monospace> refers to all editions of
this document, including future editions yet to be determined by the author.</p>
<sec id="author-owned-identifiers">
<title>Author-owned identifiers</title>
<p>A digital succession is a work by an author, as declared by the author as it changes
over time. Unlike a traditional journal article, a digital succession is not a single
final published result. In contrast to multiple versions of preprints on a preprint
servers, a digital succession is not a sequence of deposits at a particular preprint
server. A DSI identifies an authors work independent of where it might be stored or
viewed.</p>
<p>The editions of a digital succession might span preprints found on multiple preprint
servers, a published journal article and amended editions on new venues of scholarly
communication. A digital succession and its DSI also do not need a central registry
or authority to be created and tied together. A DSI can be used privately to identify
a digital succession before it is shared publicly.</p>
<p>An author determines what editions are in a digital succession because a
digital succession is digitally signed by the author, specifically with a <ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy">PGP
key</ext-link> <xref alt="3" rid="ref-enwikiU003A1108847090" ref-type="bibr">3</xref> of the
author.</p>
</sec>
</sec>
<sec id="choice-of-reading-format">
<title>Choice of reading format</title>
<p>Although technically independent of the DSI standard, JATS XML is combined with DSIs
in software and services under development, such as the
<ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://perm.pub/czdv8PyJKF7LneTnaVT6pgAKyh8/0">perm.pub pilot project</ext-link>.
The combination DSI plus JATS gives readers the choice of modern web page or PDF
formats, as offered by PubMed Central and journal websites.</p>
</sec>
<sec id="multilevel-edition-numbering">
<title>Multilevel edition numbering</title>
<p>In the simplest edition numbering scenario, edition numbers are just positive integers,
like with textbook editions and preprint version numbers.
An optional benefit of digital successions is multilevel edition numbering.
Multilevel numbering is found in the numbering of
chapters, sections, and subsections (e.g. chapter 2, section 2.4, subsection 2.4.3).
Multilevel numbering is also found in software release versions (e.g. software release
2.19.2).</p>
<p>Multilevel numbering is particular useful when amending editions with a binary change in
the digital object (e.g. PDF file), but not in the intellectual content (e.g. the
text in the PDF). The DSI specification does not specify the meaning of different levels
in edition numbers apart from larger integers coming after smaller integers and higher
level edition numbers identifying subordinate sequences of lower level edition numbers
(e.g. the entire sequence of editions numbers 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, ..., can be identified by
edition number 2).</p>
<sec id="use-of-zeros-in-edition-numbers">
<title>Use of zeros in edition numbers</title>
<p>Zeros are valid at any level in an edition number, except at the end. An edition number
with a zero at any level carries special meaning.
These editions are <italic>unlisted</italic> which means they are accessible but should not be listed
by default.
This is similar conceptually to hidden files of a folder in a file systems. Authors may
choose to use this feature in a variety of ways. One way is to use it for editions that
are not intended for the main target audience.
For instance, they may be used for testing purposes, for drafts, or preliminary
releases.</p>
</sec>
</sec>
<sec id="conclusion">
<title>Conclusion</title>
<p>Digital Succession Identifiers (DSIs) enable three novel benefits to authors of research
documents. The fundamental benefit is that DSIs can be author-owned identifiers. A
secondary benefit is multilevel edition numbering. The third benefit is a new
combination of existing benefits: persistent identification,
amendability and a choice of reading format. However, enabling choice of reading format
requires combining DSIs with an application such as digital successions of JATS XML.</p>
<p>In addition to reaping the benefits of DSIs, early adopters can help improve the
definition of the DSI standard and the direction of software and services being
developed around the DSI standard.
Software for DSIs is under development at
<ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://gitlab.com/perm.pub/hidos">gitlab.com/perm.pub/hidos</ext-link> and an early trial
service is available as the
<ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://perm.pub/czdv8PyJKF7LneTnaVT6pgAKyh8/0">perm.pub pilot project</ext-link>.
Email the author <ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="mailto:castedo@castedo.com">Castedo Ellerman</ext-link> to become an early adopter.</p>
<p>For technical details on how DSIs are implemented, see the <ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://perm.pub/ji2STto1mZ3i2BmnGxbkebejKH4/0">Digital Succession
Identifier Specification</ext-link>.</p>
</sec>
</body>
<back>
<ref-list>
<title>References</title>
<ref id="ref-enwikiU003A1108847090">
<element-citation>
<person-group person-group-type="author">
<string-name>Wikipedia contributors</string-name>
</person-group>
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</element-citation>
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<element-citation>
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<element-citation>
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<uri>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Digital_object_identifier&oldid=1110508394</uri>
</element-citation>
</ref>
</ref-list>
</back>
</article>
