Delivering 'Cool URIs' That Do Not Change

Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) are an accepted and standard way to identify data records and entities, providing a necessary element in data access, query and integration. Identifiers.org is an infrastructure that enables the generation (and resolution) of perennial and globally unique URIs for life science data, independently of where the data record is actually stored. This system allows the composition of ’cool URIs’, based on the providers’ accession numbers, which can be used for efficient and effective cross-referencing. We describe Identifiers.org, and compare it with other pre-existing identification systems, highlighting the additional benefits it offers.