Digital Object Identifier

A Digital Object Identifier or DOI is an identification mechanism for digital resources, such as films, reports, observation datasets, modelling results, etc. It means that data can be accessed more simply by readers who wish to reuse them to check a result or continue the work presented in a publication.

Since 2012, Ifremer has been offering the possibility to attribute a DOI to data managed by scientific data management systems. To do so, Ifremer works with CNRS's Institute for scientific and technical information (INIST) which is registered as a "DOI agency" belonging to the DataCite consortium.

The DOI of a dataset identifies it persistently, and thereby means that it can be formally cited in a scientific article, providing direct access to it to rerun results, etc. It ensured persistent access to the resource: the DOI remains identical even if the resources is moved to a different location on the Internet. A DOI can therefore improve the reliability of your data.

Like a citation of a scientific article, it provides visibility for a dataset and its author.

At Ifremer, a DO can therefore be associated for instance:

  • To all (or several thematic subsets of) the digital results from a research cruise referenced in the catalogue of French oceanographic research cruises managed by SISMER
  • To an analysis (climatology...), a modelling result, a set of aggregated data, ... if they are described in standardised form in the Sextant catalogue (metadata compatible with the INSPIRE Directive) ;

Exemple : Pascal MOUQUET, Touria BAJJOUK (2014). Bathymétrie issue des images hyperspectrales - côte ouest de La Réunion. Délégation Ifremer océan Indien. http://dx.doi.org/10.12770/0d177ff9-d802-4d10-8a00-3a46e0ef0735

Exemple : ARGO (2000). Argo floats data and metadata from Global Data Assembly Centre (Argo GDAC). IFREMER. http://dx.doi.org/10.12770/1282383d-9b35-4eaa-a9d6-4b0c24c0cfc9

Exemple : Mouquet Pascal, Bajjouk Touria, Maurel Laurence, Cebeillac Alexandre, Le Goff Ronan, Ropert Michel (2014). ATLAS des Résultats du traitement des images hyperspectrales et des données Lidar sur les plateformes récifales de La Réunion. http://dx.doi.org/10.13155/29653

The data set referenced by a DOI must meet the following criteria:

  • Be stable over time (to be able to be used identically). A modification in the dataset leads to a new version and a new DOI. A dataset which is completed over time (for instance, an active time series) should be divided into sequences (monthly or annual for instance)
  • Be freely accessible to all in order to be reusable to generate new results.