Best Practices and Guidelines for how to get DOIs

Background

A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a unique and permanent identifier for a digital object, such as a research paper, dataset, or software. The purpose of a DOI is to provide a stable, long-lasting link to the digital object, allowing users to easily locate and access it. DOIs are managed by trusted registration agencies, such as CrossRef, DataCite, or mEDRA, and they resolve to a landing page that provides metadata and access to the object being identified.

Having a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) for your publication provides several benefits:

1. Permanent and stable access: A DOI provides a permanent and stable link to your publication, ensuring that it remains accessible over time and can be easily located by others.
2. Improved discoverability: DOIs make it easier for others to discover your publication through online search engines and databases, increasing its visibility and impact.
3. Reliable citing: DOIs help to ensure accurate and reliable citing of your publication by providing a unique identifier that can be easily included in a reference list.
4. Increased credibility: By using a DOI, you are demonstrating your commitment to high-quality research and publishing practices, which can increase the credibility of your publication.
5. Better data management: DOIs can be used to track and manage data associated with your publication, making it easier to access, analyze, and share your research results.

Overall, having a DOI for your publication helps to ensure its long-term accessibility, visibility, and impact, making it easier for others to find, use, and build upon your work.

Best practices for coining DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) include:

1. Assign unique DOIs: Each DOI must be unique and permanent, and should not change over time.
2. Use a trusted DOI registration agency: Use a recognized and trusted DOI registration agency such as CrossRef, DataCite, or mEDRA.
3. Ensure resolvability: DOIs should resolve to a landing page that provides metadata and access to the full-text or object being identified.
4. Provide complete metadata: The landing page should provide complete and accurate metadata, including title, authors, publication date, and persistent URL.
5. Use a consistent format: i.e. a consistent format for coining DOIs, such as the "10.xxxx/yyyyyyyy" format recommended by the International DOI Foundation.
6. Update and maintain the DOI record: Regularly update and maintain the DOI record to ensure that it continues to resolve to the correct landing page.

Examples of DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers):

• 10.1038/nature14539
• 10.1016/j.cell.2013.11.049
• 10.1371/journal.pone.0127752
• 10.1186/s13643-020-01356-9

Note that the format of DOIs typically consists of a prefix (e.g. "10."), followed by a unique identifier assigned by the registration agency (e.g. "nature14539," "journal.pone.0127752"). The prefix and identifier together form the complete DOI, which resolves to a landing page that provides metadata and access to the digital object being identified.

General requirements

NILU, on behalf of EVDC, may issue a DOI on datasets or other data products related to ESA Cal/Val. Issuing of the DOI is done through the trusted entity DataCite metadata service. http://doi.datacite.org/

EVDC offers user support related to the self-coining of DOIs. This involves giving the various frameworks access to the EVDC API for generating landing pages, issuing new DataCite repositories and giving access to the DataCite API for coining DOIs. In addition, EVDC provides guidelines for the distribution of DOIs, recommendations on granularity and a list of recommended metadata to include when creating landing pages and coining DOIs.

When a DOI is issued, there are two things to consider: First, you need to report metadata following the XML format (see what’s required below). Secondly, if you need a landing page for the DOI, you will also need to supply some information with regards to this in a text file. The data resource will then be available through the presentation web page on a EVDC server, hereunder a private URL to your landing page as a sub page of https://evdc.esa.int

Granularity

Granularity in DOIs is the level of detail or specificity that a DOI provides for identifying a digital object. For example, a DOI can identify a whole dataset, a subset of a dataset, or a single data file within a dataset. The level of granularity depends on how the data provider assigns and registers DOIs for their data products.

Granularity in DOIs should be carefully considered and balanced by data providers and users, taking into account the nature, purpose, and scope of their data products. It may create confusion or inconsistency among data users if different levels of granularity are used for citing or accessing the same type of data products.

As a general rule in EVDC, the recommendation is to have the granularity of one DOI for each dataset in the GEOMS database, on station or instrument level.

In special cases other granularities can be considered. It is important to consider that when deciding on the granularity, the data user should be kept in mind. If a dataset is produced every day, a collection of datasets over time might be more sensible than a dedicated DOI for each dataset.

Steps in generating a DOI

1) Contact the EVDC team (nadirteam@nilu.no) in order to get a DataCite repository if a repository does not already exist.
2) Log in to https://doi.datacite.org/ with the provided user information for your DataCite repository and fill in the DOI form accordingly.
3) Create a landing page. An example is found at https://git.nilu.no/evdc/evdc-best-practice4dois/-/blob/main/notebooks/xml/example.xml (also listed below) . Use the scripts as a starting point for the landing-page and DOI generation and modify the page to fit your purpose and dataset.
4) Send your landing page by e-mail to the EVDC team (nadirteam@nilu.no)

XML metadata and landing pages

Example on how to report metadata in xml:
- Metadata elements
- Name of the creator(s) of the dataset and affiliation
- Title
- Publication year
- Subject (e.g. “Atmospheric Science”)
- Contact person(s)
- Date of collection
- Date of creation
- Size (only if its a dataset, supply size of dataset in megabytes)
- Format (text/plain, netCDF, Ascii etc.)
- Language
- Rights (Any rights information for this resource, licensing, copyright etc.)
- Resource type (should be “Dataset” in most cases)
- Description(s) (you can have one or more description types. Select among the following description types: Abstract, Methods, SeriesInformation, TableOfContents, TechnicalInfo, Other)
- Funder name(s)
- GeoLocation of measuring station(s)

Supplying information for the landing page:
The landing page is not so strict in terms of content and shape, but should include a description of the elements below.

Include the following information:
- Title
- Image (plot etc.) that describes the dataset, not mandatory but preferable.
- Data policy
- Description of data file (s), including contact person for the specific dataset/subset of the dataset (in case there is data from multiple stations).
- Acknowledgments
- Citation (How to cite the dataset)
- Contact

The metadata schema used for coining the DOIs follows the DataCite metadata schema. For more information visit: https://schema.datacite.org/.

example.xml

Prefixes

Network	Prefix
AEOLUS	10.60621
COCCON	10.48296
EUBREWNET	10.48801
NDACC	10.60897
PGN	10.48596

Assigned DOIs

Network	Station	DOI	PI
COCCON	Arrival Heights Boulder Co Cedre Gouraud Forest Fairbanks Ak Gobabeb Harvard Forest Ma Jinja Karlsruhe Kiruna Magurele Sodankyla St.Petersburg EMME St.Petersburg Sverdlovsk Thessaloniki Toronto Tao Tsukuba	https://doi.org/10.48477/coccon.pf10.arrivalheights.R02 https://doi.org/10.48477/coccon.pf10.boulder.R01 https://doi.org/10.48477/coccon.pf10.atlasm5.R01 https://doi.org/10.48477/coccon.pf10.fairbanks.R01 https://doi.org/10.48477/coccon.pf10.gobabeb.R02 https://doi.org/10.48477/coccon.pf10.harvardforest.R01 https://doi.org/10.48477/coccon.pf10.jinja.R01 https://doi.org/10.48477/coccon.pf10.karlsruhe.R02 https://doi.org/10.48477/coccon.pf10.kiruna.R01 https://doi.org/10.48477/coccon.pf10.magurele.R01 https://doi.org/10.48477/coccon.pf10.sodankyla.R01 https://doi.org/10.48477/coccon.pf10.sodankyla.kit.R01 https://doi.org/10.48477/coccon.pf10.stpetersburg.R01 https://doi.org/10.48477/coccon.pf10.stpetersburg.kit.R01 https://doi.org/10.48477/coccon.pf10.yekaterinburg.R01* https://doi.org/10.48477/coccon.pf10.thessaloniki.R01 https://doi.org/10.48477/coccon.pf10.toronto.R01 https://doi.org/10.48477/coccon.pf10.tsukuba.R02	Pollard, David Baier, Bianca and Hase, Frank Lopez, Morgan Simpson, William and Jacobs, Nicole Hase, Frank et.al Wofsy, Steven et.al Boesch, Hartmut and Humpage, Neil Hase, Frank et.al Blumenstock, Thomas et.al Dandocsi, Alexandru et.al Kivi, Rigel and Heikkinen, Pauli Tu, Qiansi, Heikkinen, Pauli and Dubravica, Darko Hase, Frank et.al Hase, Frank et.al * Hase, Frank and Alberti, Carlos et.al Wunch, Debra and Mostafavi Pak, Nasrin Morino, Isamu and Ohyama, Hirofumi
EUBREWNET	Thessaloniki	https://doi.org/10.48801/eubrewnet.gewh-ek15	Bais, Alkis
NDACC	Hohenpeissenberg	https://doi.org/10.60897/fn0g-0r56 https://doi.org/10.60897/x48r-e929	Steinbrecht, Wolfgang and Velazco, Voltaire Steinbrecht, Wolfgang and Velazco, Voltaire