How every article we publish is permanently and uniquely identified.
Every article published in PublicPast is assigned a PublicPast Identifier (PPI) a unique, permanent identifier that distinguishes it from every other article we have ever published or will publish. The PPI serves two purposes: it is the stable reference readers and scholars can use to cite and locate the article, and it is the internal key by which the article is tracked through our editorial and publishing systems.
A PPI is assigned free of charge to every article accepted for publication. Authors are not charged, and no external registration body is involved. The PPI is issued and maintained solely by PublicPast.
A PPI encodes the volume, issue, article category, and sequence number of an article within that category and issue. It also forms the article's permanent URL on publicpast.org.
In this example, v1i2 denotes Volume 1, Issue 2; ra denotes the article's category (Research Article); and 01 denotes its sequence number within that category for that issue.
| Code | Category |
|---|---|
| ra | Research Article |
| nh | Narrative History |
| op | Editorial Article |
| br | Book Review |
| es | Essay |
| ps | Photo Essay |
A PPI is assigned to an article once it has cleared editorial review, satisfied all requirements described in our Publication Ethics & Editorial Policies, and been scheduled for publication. Each PPI is assigned exactly once and is never assigned to more than one article.
Because PublicPast publishes on a quarterly cycle with a limited, tightly reviewed number of articles per issue, PPIs are allocated manually by the Editorial Board as part of production, ensuring that volume, issue, category, and sequence are correctly and consistently recorded.
A PPI, once assigned, is permanent. It is never altered, recycled, or reassigned, including in cases where the associated article is later corrected, updated, retracted, or withdrawn.
This ensures that any citation, reference, or link pointing to a PPI will always resolve to the correct article history, never to unrelated content published later under the same identifier.
We encourage readers, researchers, and other publications to cite PublicPast articles using their PPI URL, as this is the most stable and permanent reference available. The PPI URL will remain valid for as long as PublicPast is in operation, regardless of any future redesign of the site's navigation or structure.
For questions about a specific PPI, including verifying the authenticity of a citation, please contact us directly.
