Emily Hughes was told someone with the same name, born on the same day in the same area has already applied.

In many disciplines, data are highly decentralized across thousands of online databases (repositories, registries, and knowledgebases). Wringing value from such databases depends on the discipline of data science and on the humble bricks and mortar that make integration possible; identifiers are a core component of this integration infrastructure. Drawing on our experience and on work by other groups, we outline 10 lessons we have learned about the identifier qualities and best practices that facilitate large-scale data integration. Specifically, we propose actions that identifier practitioners (database providers) should take in the design, provision and reuse of identifiers. We also outline the important considerations for those referencing identifiers in various circumstances, including by authors and data generators. While the importance and relevance of each lesson will vary by context, there is a need for increased awareness about how to avoid and manage common identifier problems, especially those related to persistence and web-accessibility/resolvability. We focus strongly on web-based identifiers in the life sciences; however, the principles are broadly relevant to other disciplines.

ISBN unique? Yeah, nope.

Scientometrics - Digital object identifiers (DOIs) were launched in 1997 to facilitate the long-term access and identification of objects in digital environments. The objective of the present...

Data are the infrastructure of science and they serve as the groundwork for scientific pursuits. Data publication has emerged as a game-changing breakthrough in scholarly communication. Data form the outputs of research but also are a gateway to new hypotheses, enabling new scientific insights and driving innovation. And yet stakeholders across the scholarly ecosystem, including practitioners, institutions, and funders of scientific research are increasingly concerned about the lack of sharing and reuse of research data. Across disciplines and countries, researchers, funders, and publishers are pushing for a more effective research environment, minimizing the duplication of work and maximizing the interaction between researchers. Availability, discoverability, and reproducibility of research outputs are key factors to support data reuse and make possible this new environment of highly collaborative research. An interoperable e-infrastructure is imperative in order to develop new platforms and services for to data publication and reuse. DataCite has been working to establish and promote methods to locate, identify and share information about research data. Along with service development, DataCite supports and advocates for the standards behind persistent identifiers (in particular DOIs, Digital Object Identifiers) for data and other research outputs. Persistent identifiers allow different platforms to exchange information consistently and unambiguously and provide a reliable way to track citations and reuse. Because of this, data publication can become a reality from a technical standpoint, but the adoption of data publication and data citation as a practice by researchers is still in its early stages. Since 2009, DataCite has been developing a series of tools and services to foster the adoption of data publication and citation among the research community. Through the years, DataCite has worked in a close collaboration with interdisciplinary partners on these issues and we have gained insight into the development of data publication workflows. This paper describes the types of different actions and the lessons learned by DataCite.

Software plays a significant role in modern academic research, yet lacks a similarly significant presence in the scholarly record. With increasing interest in promoting reproducible research, curating software as a scholarly resource not only promotes access to these tools, but also provides recognition for the intellectual efforts that go into their development. This work reviews existing standards for identifying, promoting discovery of, and providing credit for software development work. In addition, it shows how these guidelines have been integrated into existing tools and community cultures, and provides recommendations for future software curation efforts.

As the linking hub for scholarly content, it’s our job to tame URLs and put in their place something better. Why? Most URLs suffer from link rot and can be created, deleted or changed at any time. And that’s a problem if you’re trying to cite them.

This document identifies gaps in existing PID infrastructures, with a focus on ORCID and DataCite Metadata and links between contributors, organizations and artefacts. What prevents us from establishing interoperability and overcoming barriers between PID platforms for contributors, artefacts and organisations, and research solutions for federated attribution, claiming, publishing and direct data access? It goes on to propose strategies to overcome these gaps.

Lower-right light green quadrant!

Cataloging tool that finds variable and fixed MARC fields (bibliographic and authority data), LC and MeSH subject headings, LC and NLM Classification numbers, language codes, geographic area codes, publication country codes, and AACR2 abbreviations, LC main entry and geographic Cutter numbers.

URIs in MARC: A Call for Best Practices  Author: Steven Folsom (Discovery Metadata Librarian, Cornell University) email: sf433@cornell.edu Date: 2015-05-01  Statement of Purpose: To draw attention to the need for standardized best practices for capturing URIs in MARC bibliographic and authority r...

What exactly is a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and how does it help in the management and long-term preservation of research? Laurence Horton explains the basic structure and purpose of a DOI an…

Facebook's introduction of a cross-device ID last fall was a big deal in marketing circles. Based on the company's direct relationships with its 1.4 billion users, it offered a viable alternative to the broken cookie. Since then, Facebook has been on a communications and sales blitz, driving awareness and adoption of its "people-based marketing" product... Continue reading »