The Publisher Item Identifier (PII) is a
unique identifier
A unique identifier (UID) is an identifier that is guaranteed to be unique among all identifiers used for those objects and for a specific purpose. The concept was formalized early in the development of computer science and information systems ...
used by a number of
scientific journal publishers to identify documents.
Publisher Item Identifier as a means of document identification
Elsevier web site, last update 9 April 1998, accessed October 2003 It uses the pre-existing ISSN
An International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is an eight-digit serial number used to uniquely identify a serial publication, such as a magazine. The ISSN is especially helpful in distinguishing between serials with the same title. ISSNs ...
or ISBN
The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier that is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.
An ISBN is assigned to each separate edition an ...
of the publication in question, and adds a character for source publication type, an item number, and a check digit.
The system was adopted in 1996 by the American Chemical Society
The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...
, the
American Institute of Physics
The American Institute of Physics (AIP) promotes science and the profession of physics, publishes physics journals, and produces publications for scientific and engineering societies. The AIP is made up of various member societies. Its corpora ...
, the American Physical Society,
Elsevier Science
Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', the ...
, and the IEEE
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operat ...
.
Format
A PII (pii) is a 17-character string, consisting of:
* one character to indicate source publication type: "S" = serial with ISSN, "B" = book with ISBN
* ISSN (8 digits) or ISBN (10 characters) of the serial or book to which the publication item is primarily assigned
* in the case of serials an additional two digit number to pad the difference between the 8-digit ISSN and an ISBN (suggested are the last two digits of calendar year of the date of assignment, which is not necessarily identical to the cover date)
* a 5-digit number assigned by the publisher that is unique to the publication item within the serial or book
* a check digit (0-9 or X)
When a PII is printed (as opposed to stored in a database), the 17-character string may be extended with punctuation characters to make it more readable to humans, as in Sxxxx-xxxx(yy)iiiii-d or Bx-xxx-xxxxx-x/iiiii-d.
Example
*
See also
* Serial Item and Contribution Identifier
The Serial Item and Contribution Identifier (SICI) was a code (ANSI/NISO standard Z39.56-1996 2002 used to uniquely identify specific volumes, articles or other identifiable parts of a serial. It was "intended primarily for use by those member ...
(SICI)
* Digital Object Identifier
A digital object identifier (DOI) is a persistent identifier or handle used to uniquely identify various objects, standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). DOIs are an implementation of the Handle System; they a ...
(DOI)
* OpenURL
An OpenURL is similar to a web address, but instead of referring to a physical website, it refers to an article, book, patent, or other resource within a website.
OpenURLs are similar to permalinks because they are permanently connected to a r ...
* Template:PII
References
External links
Document identifiers: an update on current activities
Identifiers
{{publishing-stub