NASA EOSDIS Data Identifiers: Approach and System

NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project began investigating the use of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) in 2010 with the goal of assigning DOIs to various data products. These Earth science research data products produced using Earth observations and models are archived and distributed by twelve Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) located across the United States. Each data center serves a different Earth science discipline user community and, accordingly, has a unique approach and process for generating and archiving a variety of data products. These varied approaches present a challenge for developing a DOI solution. To address this challenge, the ESDIS Project has developed processes, guidelines, and several models for creating and assigning DOIs. Initially the DOI assignment and registration process was started as a prototype but now it is fully operational. In February 2012, the ESDIS Project started using the California Digital Library (CDL) EZID for registering DOIs. The DOI assignments were initially labor-intensive. The system is now automated, and the assignments are progressing rapidly. As of February 28, 2017, over 50% of the data products at the DAACs had been assigned DOIs. Citations using the DOIs increased from about 100 to over 370 between 2015 and 2016.