I'm pleased to share that BossDB data collections are now assigned Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), which are stable, persistent identifiers that you can use to point to a BossDB resource in your publication, website, or other communications.
BossDB has already supported long-term stable URLs for data collections since 2017 (see our post on Sharing Open Data with BossDB), and those URLs will remain valid in perpetuity. Meanwhile, DOIs are a familiar and widely used identifier for scientific resources, and we are excited to be able to offer them to our users.
What is a DOI?
A DOI is a unique, persistent identifier for a digital object. DOIs are commonly used to identify scientific publications, but they can also be used to identify datasets, software, and other digital objects. DOIs are managed by the DOI Foundation, which is a not-for-profit membership organization that maintains the infrastructure for DOIs and provides services to DOI registrants.How do I get a DOI for my BossDB Data Collection?
We are now retroactively assigning DOIs to all existing BossDB Data Collections, and we will also assign DOIs to new Data Collections as they are created. We expect all Data Collections to have a DOI by the end of 2023.Can I still use existing BossDB identifiers?
Yes you can! BossDB DOIs will be assigned in addition to BossDB URIs (things that start withbossdb://). You will still be able to use these URIs to refer to and access data collections, and you can still use URLs starting with https://bossdb.org/ to link to a data collection or resource from another webpage or publication. How do I cite a BossDB data collection?
You can now cite a BossDB data collection using its DOI, as well as the long term stable URL.We're excited to be able to offer DOIs to our users, and we hope that this will make it easier for you to share and cite your BossDB data collections. If you have any questions or feedback, please get in touch with us at info@bossdb.org.
— Brock
