Identifiers for PhD theses and research students: How can we make it happen?

By their very nature PhD theses break new ground and advance research. They are often the first scholarly output produced by early researchers, and it makes sense to embrace new initiatives like identifiers right at the beginning of the research process. Applying Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) to all theses and encouraging doctoral students to hold an ORCID iD will: - Provide easily citeable theses and data - Grow usage, and support metrics & altmetrics - Embed good data management practice early on - Help track career paths and impact of funding In 2015, the Unlocking Thesis Data project took a snapshot of progress in the application of thesis DOIs and student ORCID iDs across the UK, and recommended some actions for institutions, repository systems, and the British Library's EThOS service.