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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">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="2022-08-24">
<day>24</day>
<month>8</month>
<year>2022</year>
</pub-date>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>© 2022, Ellerman et al</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2022</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 to be determined in the
future, 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/popgen.es/hidos">gitlab.com/popgen.es/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>
<sec id="references">
<title>References</title>
</sec>
</body>
<back>
<ref-list>
<ref id="ref-enwikiU003A1108847090">
<element-citation>
<person-group person-group-type="author">
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</element-citation>
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<element-citation>
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<element-citation>
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</person-group>
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<year iso-8601-date="2022">2022</year>
<uri>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Digital_object_identifier&oldid=1110508394</uri>
</element-citation>
</ref>
</ref-list>
</back>
</article>
