Step 10 - Publish Data with Persistent Identifiers

Image representing identification
Use persistant identifiers to make your research discoverable

At the end of your project, make your research data findable, accessible, interoperable and re-useable (F.A.I.R) and ultimately reproducible, by publishing it with a Persistant Identifier (PiD) such as a Digital Object Identifier (DOI).

Identifiers vs Persistent Identifiers

Identifiers

An identifier is any label used to name an item (whether digital or physical). URLs and serial numbers are an examples of digital identifiers.

Personal names are also identifiers, but are not necessarily unique as you may share the same name with other researchers around the world.

Serial numbers & URLS
Serial numbers & URLS

Management of these digital identifiers is NOT guaranteed:

  • links disappear
  • websites shut down
  • product support ends

Persistent Identifiers

A persistent identifier is long-lasting unique digital reference to a webpage, digital object, even a person.

Examples include the Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) and Digital Object Identifiers (DOI).

Management of persistent identifiers IS guaranteed:

  • links are kept up to date over a defined time period
  • links will find the object, even when websites change.
DOIs

A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is a unique alphanumeric string that:

  • is assigned by either a publisher, organisation or agency
  • identifies content
  • provides a persistent link to its location or record on the internet and links to other related research output
  • facilitates citation and citation metrics

DOIs uniquely identify research data and support citation and citation metrics.

Watch this short video from Research Data Netherlands explaining Persistant identifiers and data citation (4:52)

Key messages:

  • DOIs are the globally accepted identification standard for digital scholarly publications, detailing the necessary metadata to support credit and attribution.
  • DOIs can be created for datasets and associated outputs (e.g. grey literature, workflows, algorithms, software etc.) - DOIs for data are equivalent to DOIs for other scholarly publications
  • DOIs enable accurate data citation and bibliometrics (both metrics and altmetrics)
  • Resolvable DOIs provide easy online access to research data for discovery, attribution and reuse
  • Dataset DOIs can be linked using standard metadata schemas to other research output, increasing opportunities to reproduce research.

The examples below show how DOIs connect scholarly publications with supporting datasets.

DOIs linking Chris Brown's research
DOIs linking Chris Brown's research

Chris’s dataset is a large collecttion which has been analysed for multiple projects and articles. The dataset is available for validation of his work and also reuse by other researchers, with a citation and DOI created by GRO. Chris also shares the supporting code via Github.

  • Data Citation: Brown, C.J. & Broadley, A.. (2017). Fishscape. https://doi.org/10.25904/1912/4017
  • Article Citation: Brown, C. J., Broadley, A., Adame, M. F., Branch, T. A., Turschwell, M. P., & Connolly, R. M. (2019). The assessment of fishery status depends on fish habitats. Fish and Fisheries, 20(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1111/faf.12318
DOIs linking Jessica Paynter's research
DOIs linking Jessica Paynter's research

Jessica’s research was published in a journal which could also publish and mint a DOI for her supporting dataset.

  • Data and Article Citation: Paynter, J., Luskin-Saxby, S., Keen, D., Fordyce, K., Frost, G., Imms, C., Miller, S., Trembath, D., Tucker, M., & Ecker, U.. (2019). Evaluation of a template for countering misinformation—Real-world Autism treatment myth debunking (Version 1). PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0210746
First steps

Ensure data you publish or associate with a publication has a DOI.

How?

  • Deposit final state data to support your publications in an institutional or discipline data repository which can mint a DOI and create a citation for your work.
  • Examples include:
  • Cite your dataset in the references of the articles it supports. This is the best way for others to find and access your dataset, for reproducibility purposes or to use with attribution in their own research. Professor Mark Finnane illustrates this in the citation to his dataset The Prosecution Project Database in reference 27 of his article published in the UNSW Law Journal.
  • Contact your Library staff for guidance.
Advanced
Internal Resources
  • Contact the Library Repository Team via the online form for advice on how to obtain a DOI for your data upon project completion.
External Resources
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