The Software Hash Identifier (SWHID) has become an international ISO/IEC standard
An identifier is a unique, persistent alphanumeric code assigned to a digital resource, regardless of its location. Identifiers can be assigned to digital research objects (articles, data, software, etc., e.g. DOI), research structures (e.g. ROR), and individual researchers (e.g. ORCID). These are essential for citing and discovering resources and also enable them to be linked up. Identifiers mean that it is possible to link an author to their scientific output and affiliated institutions.
The Software Hash Identifier (SWHID) was created by Software Heritage and is a persistent and unique identifier for software source codes. It is calculated from a software artefact itself in a unique and intrinsic way (without relying on a registry to maintain the correspondence between the identifier and the object). SWHIDs can be used to identify all levels of granularity that correspond to tangible software artefacts such as snapshots, releases, commits, directories, files and code fragments.
In April 2025, SWHID became an international ISO/IEC standard and is now recognised as a reliable and universal way of referencing software components. This enhances the reproducibility, traceability and long-term preservation of software.
This was the culmination of several years of work by the Software Heritage community. The SWHID also corresponds to one of the recommendations set out in the third ‘path’ of the Second French Plan for Open Science and in the French Higher Education and Research Ministry’s 2021-2024 roadmap on Data, Algorithms and Source Code Policy.
Find out more:
Information about SWHID on the Software Heritage website: https://www.softwareheritage.org/software-hash-identifier-swhid/
The ISO/IEC standard: ISO/IEC18670:2025 :https://www.iso.org/standard/89985.html
The report in English: ‘Recommendations for the Adoption of Persistent Identifiers in Higher Education and Research in France’ : https://www.ouvrirlascience.fr/recommendations-for-the-adoption-of-persistent-identifiers-in-higher-education-and-research-in-france/
