Another GUID system that might be of interest is ARK (http://www.cdlib.org/inside/diglib/ark/). The site describing this approach has a nice discussion of the issues surrounding persistent identifiers, and various solutions such as DOIs and URNs (of which LSIDs are an example). I think this system should be looked at closely, before we limit discussion to DOIs or LSIDs.

Regards

Rod

Professor Roderic D. M. Page Editor, Systematic Biology DEEB, IBLS Graham Kerr Building University of Glasgow Glasgow G12 8QP United Kingdom

Phone: +44 141 330 4778 Fax: +44 141 330 2792 email: r.page@bio.gla.ac.uk web: http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/rod/rod.html reprints: http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/rod/pubs.html

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