Frequently Asked Questions on PermID
UPDATED: Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 12:41
42.69KB

PermID

What is PermID?

Permanent Identifier (PermID) uniquely identifies objects in the LSEG Information Model. The model includes organizations, instruments, funds, issuers and people and defines how these objects are linked together – linkages that often change over time.

PermID is a bit like a barcode for products, or VIN for cars, in that it’s designed to be primarily used to accurately and unambiguously reference an object or piece of data.

The PermID is associated with a unique web address (URI) of the object that can be directly linked to. For example: https://permid.org/1-4298007752 is directly and permanently linked to London Stock Exchange Group PLC page.

Why is PermID important?

A common identifier across all LSEG solutions and data sets is a powerful tool that enables our customers to draw intelligence from our data and easily navigate and link information from various sources.

In our datasets, PermID coherently stitches together content from listings to issuers, subsidiaries to parent organizations, and entities to holdings.

The PermID allows our clients and partners to easily extract or navigate LSEG data, as well as manage their internal systems with our PermID to better utilize their data.

Can I create my own PermIDs?

We have received many requests for this capability and are currently exploring several options. If you are interested in creating your own PermIDs or contributing to our PermID.org, please contact us at permid.feedback@lseg.com

 

PermID.org Website

What is the Permid.org website?

Permid.org website is the portal to the LSEG Information Model.

The website is home to our core entity data and metadata for organizations, instruments and quotes and in the future it will provide also metadata for fixed income and exchange-traded instruments.

The website provides a set of tools for using PermID with structured and unstructured data.

You can use one of the three services to obtain or verify PermIDs on this website:

  • Entity search
  • Record matching
  • Tagging

Each service is accessible online by a Web page or an API directly from your system.

How do I use Entity Search?

Entity Search enables you to:

  1. Retrieve an entity by entering its PermID (PermId lookup)
  2. Search for entities by using identifiers such as Name, Ticker or RIC (Search)

Use Entity Search page for one-off lookups of individual Organizations, Instruments and Quotes.

How do I use Record Matching?

If you have your own universe of organizations and instruments, the record matching service allows you to upload up to 1,000 of your own records to return PermIDs for each one.

To use record matching, you need to download the provided template, include Name, Ticker, RIC plus any other fields you have, and then upload the template to get your matches.

Are there any limitations on the free use of the Entity Search and Calais Tagging services?

Using those services is limited to 5000 records per API key (Token), although the limit on the Tagging (Calais) is 500 per Token.

How do I use Tagging?

Use Open Calais tagging to return PermID’s for organizations and instruments hidden in your unstructured text.

To use tagging, paste your text, drag & drop the text or upload a PDF/XML file into the viewer pane. Please note that the maximum file size allowed is 100 KB.

Once clicking on the “Tag It” button, you will be returned a list of industries, topics, and entities. Click through the entity to be taken to its PermID URI.

How do I use the API?

Each of the services (Entity Search, Record Matching and Tagging) has an API associated with it allowing you to receive data directly to your internal systems.

To access the APIs, you first must register for a token (API Key). This token enables you to request the APIs for the three services. Note: For entity PermID lookup you don’t need to use a token.

 

Users of PermID and PermID.org

Why should I use PermID.org?

PermID.org is geared towards anyone facing data management challenges. While most identifier schemas span subsets of entity types or categories, PermID provides a consistent information model covering a wide variety of entity types.

Among other things, PermID.org:

  • Makes the acquisition and integration of new data easier
  • Helps in the management of big data, which requires a better understanding of the relationships between entity types
  • Makes it simple to connect structured data to our information model
  • Helps to manage unstructured content such as news and research via metadata tagging

I am a client of LSEG, how can I leverage PermID?

Current clients will find PermID.org useful primary as a public reference for PermIDs.

Because the PermID is a free and open identifier, our clients find it useful to rely on PermIDs for identity when sharing data with their clients and partners.

 

Open Data at LSEG

How is data open?

In this case, “open” means significant open access – i.e. free – our linked data available on the site.

The PermID database is licensed under the Creative Commons with Attribution license, version 4.0 (CC-BY). An extended set of fields is also available under the Creative Commons Non-Commercial license (CC-NC 3.0). Plain language summaries of these licenses are available on the Creative Commons website.

Basic (CC-BY 4.0): This data is available for access on this website for all users, and to registered users via API.

Extended (CC-NC 3.0): This data is available for access on this website only. We are unable to offer API access to these fields at this time. 

Why is LSEG opening the PermID?

Publishing our identifiers and metadata as open data sends a clear message to the market about our commitment to openness. We hope it gives our users the confidence to incorporate PermID into their workflows and products.

 

Contact us

Who can I contact for more information?

To get the conversation started or simply gather more information, please contact your account manager or raise your questions through the Q&A section on the Developer Community.