Our new CDS repository is now more FAIR and more integrated with CERN services. Read below how.
DOI – do I need one?
A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is like a permanent address for something on the internet, such as a research paper, article, or video. It’s a unique code that never changes, even if the location of the content moves to a new website.
Think of it like a tracking number for a package: no matter where the package goes, you can always find it using the number. Similarly, a DOI helps you find a document online, even if its web link breaks or changes.
For example, a DOI might look like this:
https://doi.org/10.17181/dd19c-hwf65
When you click on it, it will always take you to the right place to access the content. This makes DOIs very useful for researchers, students, and anyone trying to find, share or cite information without worrying about broken links.
You do need, and you should prefer a DOI instead of other IDs, if:
- the page of your document is public (the file might be restricted)
- you want to keep permanent access to your article/paper/resource
- you want any other researcher to be able to make references to your content (citations)
- you want to share the content with the research community without worries about broken links
You do not need a DOI if:
- your document is internal, fully restricted to to your collaboration
- you do not need anyone to be able to cite your work/document
- your document does not have research related nature
Choose your DOI option
Latest CDS upgrade, we introduced optional DOIs. When you are uploading a document, you can choose to:
- Input an external DOI (for example, already provided by Zenodo.org, ArXiV.org or by a journal).
- Obtain a new DOI, registered by CDS.
- Avoid the creation of any DOI.
When you choose to obtain a DOI from CDS, all the information associated with your record, except the file content, will be registered with DataCite.org. This includes metadata such as the title, authors, and other details, which may be accessed and harvested by third-party services.
Find my colleagues
Since we are on the subject of submitting the content to https://repository.cern (aka CDS), how about providing the most accurate metadata possible, without hustle?
You can now easily find all of your CERN colleagues and external researchers with ORCiD profile when listing them as authors or contributors to your work.
But wait, what is ORCiD?
An ORCiD (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is like a unique ID card for researchers (similar to DOI for research resources). It’s a special number that helps identify scientists, academics, and other contributors to research, so their work can always be linked back to them, no matter where it’s published.
Think of it like a social security number, but for researchers—it’s unique to each person and stays with them throughout their career. This is especially useful because many researchers might have similar names, or their names might appear differently in different publications.
For example:
An ORCID might look like this: 0000-0001-2345-6789
With this number, all of a researcher’s work—papers, data, and other contributions—can be easily found and correctly attributed to them. It helps avoid confusion and makes it simple to track their achievements over time.
Creators and contributors
We have automated the import of the ORCID database, which, at the time of writing, contains over 21 million ORCID records, and the import of CERN users with an account.
Where can you add your colleagues to attribute for their contributions? There are dedicated fields in the deposit form:
In the latest CDS platform upgrade, we improved the search capabilities and display of the autocompletion widget. You can now find your colleagues easier and add them even faster.
We highly recommend creating your own ORCID profile using this link. It is a must-have for any researcher!
Once you obtain and ORCID, you should connect it with your CERN Profile, using the Users Portal, as shown:
Finding affiliations
It is in a researcher’s best interest to provide the all possible metadata describing their research – more information they provide, higher the chance for other researchers to find about it.
Information about the researchers’ affiliations might be particularly important for highlighting the relationship with the organization which funded the research. Therefore, providing the up-to-date information about your affiliation will work well.
In CDS, we usually prefill that field for you, but our sources might not have the latest data, so you are able to fill the affiliations manually if needed. How? By using ROR identifiers (yes, yet another identifier!) or simply searching for the organization’s name.
A ROR identifier (Research Organization Registry identifier) is a unique, permanent ID used to identify research organizations worldwide. It ensures that institutions like universities, labs, and funding bodies are consistently and accurately recognized in research metadata, publications, and data repositories.
For example, many institutions have similar or changing names, which can create confusion. A ROR identifier solves this by providing a standardized, unchanging ID, like https://ror.org/01ggx4157 for CERN, which always points to the same organization.
ROR is open, free, and interoperable with other systems like DOIs (for publications) and ORCID (for researchers), helping improve the discoverability and tracking of research outputs. It’s a key tool for making research more connected and organized globally.
Rich metadata
We made sure to put in place all these integrations with ORCiD, DOI, ROR and the CERN databases in order to make it easy for you to fill out the most metadata automatically (and quickly!). We strive for seamless user experience, and we really hope that all these features will make your upload easier and… more complete!
Find most viewed and downloaded
Curious to know what are the most viewed or most downloaded records? You can now easily find it out by sorting searching results.
🎄☃️❄️ Best wishes and a happy new year!
The CDS team wishes you a joyful holiday season and a bright, successful start to the New Year!
