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Digital Object Identifiers

A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is a character string used to uniquely identify digital research objects, providing a persistent link to the location of the object on the internet, and when utilised in citations, enables the tracking of citation metrics.

Traditionally DOIs have been assigned to publications, however it is now possible for DOIs to also be assigned to datasets.

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Production and access

The AODN are able to “mint” (produce) DOIs through the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) who deliver a DOI service as a member of the global DataCite initiative.

Metadata about the resource is stored in association with the DOI name and the DOI URL will resolve to a landing page (a metadata record in either the IMOS or the general AODN metadata catalogues) which provides a link to the data resource/s.

There is a one-to-one relationship between a metadata record and a dataset. The DOI for a resource is permanent, whereas its location and other metadata may change. The AODN also assign DOIs to documents, however only for internal IMOS products such as quality control manuals and reports.

Essential criteria

The AODN has the following essential criteria for resources assigned DOIs:

  • The data will be open
  • Does not already have a DOI assigned
  • Is persistently available (the AODN assumes the commitment to preserve the resource and the capacity to ensure continuity of access)
  • The resource will be hosted in systems managed by the AODN
  • The resource will have the associated metadata required by DataCite
  • Be part of the scholarly record (a citable contribution, similar to a journal article)

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a DOI look like?

An example AODN DOI for “COWCLIP2.0 ocean wave climate and extremes statistics from CMIP5-driven wave models” – 10.26198/5d91a9d00d60d, or as a hyperlink – https://doi.org/10.26198/5d91a9d00d60d.

What if a researcher needs a DOI for a data publication?

For data journals (e.g. Scientific Data), a relatively new form of writing papers that focuses narrowly on describing a particular dataset (and the collection and processing steps used to produce it), the publishers require that datasets are assigned a DOI. References to all datasets described or used in the manuscript are cited in the text and listed in the ‘References’ section in the same manner as a conventional literature reference, with the DOI URL included.

An example citation used in the ‘References’ section – Morim, J. et al. COWCLIP2.0 ocean wave climate and extremes statistics from CMIP5-driven wave models. Australian Ocean Data Network, https://doi.org/10.26198/5d91a9d00d60d (2019).Until the data paper is accepted for publication, the metadata record acting as the landing page for the DOI, will not be publicly accessible, and whilst the DOI URL will be resolvable to this location, it won’t be published to DataCite nor publicly searchable. 

Will the AODN provide DOIs for all data?

No. The AODN team will only provide DOIs upon request, and after evaluation of the suitability for archival at the AODN. In addition, usually only for datasets that are considered either static or relatively “stable” (i.e. unlikely to change over time).

The AODN, as common practice does not provide DOIs for datasets that are regularly versioned. If datasets are updated (either new content, errors corrected or the content reprocessed), the new version would require a new DOI to be minted. Minor changes such as spelling errors or minor data errors will not require a new DOI to be minted.

If the dataset is regarded as continuous and/or dynamic (long term datasets with new content regularly being added, and regular reprocessing) the AODN is not currently in a position to mint DOIs for such situations. The approach that the AODN currently employs is to take a snapshot of this data, archive it, and mint a DOI for this subset.

In addition, the AODN prefers to host small quantities of data (< 100 gigabytes) due to ongoing costs. Larger quantities can be considered upon application.

When should a researcher contact the AODN for a DOI for a data publication?

As part of the manuscript creation, researchers should contact the AODN as early as possible to discuss their needs for a DOI, and to arrange the archiving of their dataset. This will enable the AODN team time to generate both the metadata for the landing page and the DOI, and to access the data files and determine suitability for archiving. As part of this discussion, the AODN will determine at what level of granularity the DOI will be assigned, with particular consideration around how the data may be reused and cited.

Please note DOI minting at the AODN is a manual process, with a reliance on staff availability (with different staff assessing the metadata and data). This length of time will also depend on how comprehensive, and complete, the metadata and data submitted is.

Data publication workflow 

As a researcher, will I still own my own data?

All data provided to the AODN for DOI purposes is owned by the originator (individual or organisation). The AODN has no rights to the data, with its role primarily to host the data and meet the requirements listed above. The AODN therefore prefers that data is provided under an open access licence – we recommend Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.