Presentation at AGU Fall Meeting 2018. Abstract at https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm18/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/351542: PIDs such as DOI and ORCID have been successfully implemented globally and across disciplines to identify track and relate digital objects and persons, respectively. In recent years, the International Geo Sample Number (IGSN) has also seen increasing uptake as a PID for physical samples that ensures unambiguous citation and tracking of physical samples and links samples to data and publications. Originally developed for the solid Earth Sciences, the IGSN has evolved into an international system for all disciplines that need to refer to physical samples. IGSN leverages the existing Handle system as its technical basis and follows, while following the example of DataCite for its governance structure and technical architecture. The recent expansion of the IGSN beyond the geosciences confirms the power of its concept and implementation, but imposes substantial pressures on the existing capacity and capabilities of the IGSN architecture and its governing organization. Significant updates to the IGSN organisational and technical architecture are necessary at this point to keep pace with the growing demand and expectations. The current business model needs to be revised as it is no longer able to sustain the organization through the necessary professionalization of its operations. A recent award from the Sloan Foundation is now supporting activities to re-design and improve the existing organization and technical architecture of the International Geo Sample Number (IGSN) for it to be able to respond to, and support in a sustainable manner, the rapidly growing demands of a global and increasingly multi-disciplinary user community in a landscape of maturing research data infrastructures.

1. Session IN21A: Integrating Data and Services in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences Across Community, National, and International BoundariesSession IN21A: Integrating Data and Services in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences Across Community, National, and International Boundaries
IGSN:
Toward a Mature and Generic Persistent
Identifier for Samples
Kerstin Lehnert1, Jens Klump2
1Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, USA
2CSIRO, Perth, Australia
12/11/2018IN21A-01: Toward a Mature and Generic Persistent Identifier for Samples 1

2. Session IN21A: Integrating Data and Services in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences Across Community, National, and International Boundaries
Persistent
Identifiers
Help integrate
data & services
globally and
across domains
12/11/2018IN21A-01: Toward a Mature and Generic Persistent Identifier for Samples 2
Background research
Cruise DOI
Samples
IGSN
Dataset publication
Dataset DOI
Funding
FundRef#
Article publication
Publication DOI
ORCID
Researchers

3. Session IN21A: Integrating Data and Services in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences Across Community, National, and International Boundaries
IGSN: A Good Fit for this Session
• This session is about:
• Integrating data and services
• in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences
• across Community, National, and International Boundaries
• The IGSN was about:
• Integrating sample catalogs & data
• in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences
• across Community, National, and International Boundaries
• BUT: IGSN is now going beyond ESES
12/11/2018IN21A-01: Toward a Mature and Generic Persistent Identifier for Samples 3

4. Session IN21A: Integrating Data and Services in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences Across Community, National, and International Boundaries
Persistent Identifiers for Samples
• Different approaches in different domains or none at all
• IGSN
• Life Science Identifiers
• UUID
• DOI
• CETAF URI
12/11/2018IN21A-01: Toward a Mature and Generic Persistent Identifier for Samples 4

5. Session IN21A: Integrating Data and Services in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences Across Community, National, and International Boundaries
Convergence on Sample Identifiers
•
12/11/2018IN21A-01: Toward a Mature and Generic Persistent Identifier for Samples 5

6. Session IN21A: Integrating Data and Services in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences Across Community, National, and International Boundaries
Project IGSN 2040: “Defining the Future of the IGSN as a
Global Persistent Identifier for Material Samples”
“develop a strategic plan and roadmap that will guide the
IGSN system in its next chapter so it will be able to fulfill its
mission of providing persistent, sustainable, and reliable
PID services to the international science community.”
12/11/2018IN21A-01: Toward a Mature and Generic Persistent Identifier for Samples 6
Funded by
the Alfred E. Sloan Foundation
PIs: Kerstin Lehnert, Jens Klump, Lesley Wyborn

7. Session IN21A: Integrating Data and Services in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences Across Community, National, and International Boundaries
What is the IGSN?
• Globally unique & persistent identifier for physical specimens
and samples
• Connects physical samples to digital data, making them
Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable (FAIR)
• federates sample metadata catalogs (F, A, R)
• links publications to online metadata profiles (I, R)
• allows previously impossible linking and integration of sample-
based observations across data systems
• paves the road toward advanced data mining of sample-based
data
12/11/2018IN21A-01: Toward a Mature and Generic Persistent Identifier for Samples 7

8. Session IN21A: Integrating Data and Services in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences Across Community, National, and International Boundaries
IGSN
• Originally developed for the Geosciences;
• Design driven by the needs of a community of researchers, collection curators,
and data infrastructure providers;
• Leveraged the Handle system as the technical basis for the IGSN;
• followed the example of DataCite for its governance structure and technical
architecture.
12/11/2018IN21A-01: Toward a Mature and Generic Persistent Identifier for Samples 8
http://igsn.github.io (documentation)
https://github.com/igsn (repository)

9. Session IN21A: Integrating Data and Services in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences Across Community, National, and International Boundaries
IGSN Architecture
12/11/2018IN21A-01: Toward a Mature and Generic Persistent Identifier for Samples 9
IGSN 2005 IGSN 2011

10. Session IN21A: Integrating Data and Services in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences Across Community, National, and International Boundaries
IGSN Adoption: Success!
• International non-profit organization established in
2011
• IGSN e.V. registered as non-profit in Germany
• 24 members in 5 continents
• Members are organizations that want to provide
registration services (Allocating Agents)
• geological surveys of the US, UK, Australia, and Korea
• large data service providers such as ARDC, SAEON
• research organizations and national labs (GFZ Potsdam,
CSIRO Australia, CNRS France)
• universities (e.g., Columbia University, Curtin University,
Oregon State University
2/15/2018Organic Biomarker Data Workshop 10

11. Session IN21A: Integrating Data and Services in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences Across Community, National, and International Boundaries
Challenges for IGSN Architecture & Organization
• Rapidly growing demands of a global and
increasingly multi-disciplinary user community
• growing diversity of sample types
• widely varying level of system usage by different
Allocating Agents
• Within a landscape of maturing research data
infrastructures
• business model cannot sustain the organization
through the necessary professionalization of its
operations
12/11/2018IN21A-01: Toward a Mature and Generic Persistent Identifier for Samples 11
Vegetation sampling
Water sample
Biological sample

12. Session IN21A: Integrating Data and Services in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences Across Community, National, and International Boundaries
IGSN 2040 Project: Objectives
Design a trustworthy, stable, and adaptable architecture for the IGSN as a
persistent unique identifier for material samples, both technically and
organizationally.
• attract, facilitate, and satisfy participation within and beyond the Geosciences,
• be a reliable component of the evolving research data ecosystem,
• be recognized as a trusted partner by data infrastructure providers and the science
community alike.
12/11/2018IN21A-01: Toward a Mature and Generic Persistent Identifier for Samples 12
“In order to be useful and reliable, PID registration and resolution
systems need to be trustworthy and sustainable.”
[Wittenburg et al. 2017]

13. Session IN21A: Integrating Data and Services in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences Across Community, National, and International Boundaries
Designing the New IGSN
• scale to a rapidly growing membership
• ensure more professional management for
trustworthy & sustainable services.
12/11/2018IN21A-01: Toward a Mature and Generic Persistent Identifier for Samples 13
Organization
Architecture
• accommodate new and more diverse use cases.
• ensure solid technical foundation to provide for
trustworthy & sustainable services.
• facilitate synchronization of IGSN with other PID
infrastructures such as DataCite and ORCID

14. Session IN21A: Integrating Data and Services in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences Across Community, National, and International Boundaries
Project Workplan
12/11/2018IN21A-01: Toward a Mature and Generic Persistent Identifier for Samples 14

15. Session IN21A: Integrating Data and Services in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences Across Community, National, and International Boundaries
Project Steering Committees
• International (Australia, France, Germany, Japan, South
Africa, UK, USA)
• Multi-disciplinary (Earth Science, Life Science,
Archaeology, Information Science)
• Representation of diverse stakeholders (national surveys,
data & sample networks, PID specialists, etc.)
• Representation of relevant PID organizations (DataCite,
ORCID)
12/11/2018IN21A-01: Toward a Mature and Generic Persistent Identifier for Samples 15
Simon Cox
Anusuriya Devaraju
Kirsten Elger
Martin Fenner
Doug Fils
Dirk Fleischer
Wim Hugo
Xiaogang Ma
Jess Robertson
Natasha Simons
Ramona Walls
Patricia Cruse
Adrian Burton
Helen Glaves
Dimitri Koureas
Lindsay Powers
Erin Robinson
Denis-D. Rousseau
Yasuhiro Murayama
Shawn Ross
Organization Architecture

16. Session IN21A: Integrating Data and Services in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences Across Community, National, and International Boundaries
Toward Application Across Domains
• Common PID platform
• Common core metadata
• Common core vocabularies
• Flexibility for domain-specific
needs
2/15/2018Organic Biomarker Data Workshop 16
Credit: Lesley Wyborn

17. Session IN21A: Integrating Data and Services in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences Across Community, National, and International Boundaries
Synopsis
• The IGSN has successfully established a PID system for samples in the Earth Sciences, and adoption is
growing.
• Adoption is unexpectedly and rapidly expanding into other domains and globally due to lack of
alternatives that enable linking of data, publications, & samples.
• Exploding number (>6.7 million samples!) and diversity of samples require IGSN architecture to
become more scalable and flexible.
• The range of size and diversity of organizations that participate in the IGSN e.V. require a revisions of
the organizational and business model to become a sustainable and trustworthy partner in the
maturing research data infrastructure.
• The IGSN is undertaking a major strategic planning effort funded by the Sloan Foundation.
• The future name should reflect that IGSN is a PID for applications beyond Geo
12/11/2018IN21A-01: Toward a Mature and Generic Persistent Identifier for Samples 17

18. Session IN21A: Integrating Data and Services in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences Across Community, National, and International Boundaries
Thanks!
www.igsn.org
info@igsn.org
12/11/2018IN21A-01: Toward a Mature and Generic Persistent Identifier for Samples 18
Coming soon: The new IGSN web site!