Leveraging IGSN to Enhance Data Management in Research Institutions

The International Generic Sample Number (IGSN) is a crucial tool for ensuring the traceability and preservation of physical specimens in the Earth Science community. As a persistent identifier (PID), IGSN serves as a link between published digital data and the physical samples stored in a repository, enabling the creation of synergies with other services through the harvesting of machine-readable data.

The IGSN can be assigned to a physical specimen at the time of collection, either on board a research vessel or during a field campaign. This unique identifier will follow the sample through the various stages of processing and analysis. In this use case, we demonstrate how IGSN can be minted for sediment cores directly on board a research vessel and then subsequently linked to relevant research data infrastructures (RDIs) such as DSHIP and PANGAEA. This allows for the traceability and easy identification of the samples as they are transported and stored in different repositories.

Incorporating IGSN into a RDI helps to broadcast the existence of physical material and makes it more easily discoverable by researchers. This is especially useful for marine field work, which can be expensive and may not be accessible to all researchers. By making information about samples available as open access, researchers are able to easily locate and reuse existing material, which can be particularly beneficial for smaller research projects or research communities with limited resources. This is especially relevant in times of crisis, when access to certain regions may be restricted and there is an increased demand for the reuse of existing samples.

In our research institutions, there is close collaboration between RDI providers and sample curators to manage both the digital data and the physical objects, such as plant samples in a herbarium, rocks and sediment cores, and biological material. In this presentation, we will use our case studies to discuss the successes of sample management in relation to IGSN. In addition, we will address the challenges that we have encountered and how we are working to overcome them. Our goal is to provide reliable services to our communities with a long-term perspective, and we believe that the incorporation of IGSN into RDIs can help to foster cultural change and encourage international collaboration in the Earth Science community. In addition, the use of IGSN and RDIs can contribute to the sustainability and reproducibility of research.