NgREN PID (ARK) Policy
NgREN PID (ARK) Policy — Scope, Governance, and Persistence
The policy focuses on the following among others:
- Unique identifier assignment (via ARKs)
- Long-term resolution via NgREN resolver
- Versioning and redirection guidelines
- Institutional governance and sustainability
1. Scope and eligibility
NgREN manages ARKs for eligible Nigerian universities, polytechnics, colleges, research centres, and cultural heritage organizations participating in the NgREN federation.
2. Naming & assignment
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Each participating organization may receive a dedicated namespace under NgREN’s NAAN or its own NAAN from ARK Alliance where applicable.
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Local naming is delegated to the institution following NgREN guidelines on uniqueness and stability.
3. Metadata requirements
Every ARK must have minimal descriptive metadata:
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Title
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Creator/Responsible unit
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Resource type (e.g., thesis, dataset)
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Landing/target URL
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Owning institution
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Date of issuance (minted)
4. Persistence commitment
NgREN commits to maintain the resolver and core services, including:
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Persistent resolution of ARKs under our stewardship
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Reasonable efforts to update targets when locations change
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Maintaining service continuity during infrastructure upgrades
5. Versioning and changes
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Where resources are versioned, qualifiers or new ARKs may be assigned.
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Substantive changes to a resource may require a new ARK to preserve citation integrity.
6. Takedowns and redirects
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Requests for takedown or access restrictions are handled by the owning institution following legal and ethical guidelines.
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ARKs may resolve to metadata/notice pages if access is restricted.
7. Service levels (fill in your targets)
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Uptime target: [e.g., 99.5% annually]
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Support response: [e.g., 2 business days]
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Change notifications posted on Service Status page.
8. Governance and contact
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NgREN PID Service is managed by NgREN Technical department.
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Contact: info@ngren.edu.ng
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Policy review: annually or as required.