Getting DOI instead of Handles?

General
1

For depositing resources, what is CLARIN’s point of view wrt using doi’s instead hdl? Is there a clarin-wide strategy?

2

Hi Vincent,

Both are acceptable options for CLARIN repositories.

That said, although this is not an official policy, I can try to summarise what has been discussed many times within the TCC and during centre meeting coffee breaks.

If you have not chosen a system before, and your repository supports it, I would recommend DOIs. Why?

  • It is better known than the handle system, meaning a higher chance of correct citations.
  • The DataCite ecosystem (APIs and Fabrica web interface, support environment, documentation) is of a very high quality and has proven to be very reliable.
  • Its connection to other databases (ROR, ORCID, etc) means it is easier to use the DOIs for calculation of performance indicators and contextualisation.
  • Some of the historic arguments against DOIs, especially the high costs to mint large amounts of DOIs for a single repository, have been recently addressed in the latest update of the DataCite fee structure.

For already existing repositories it might make most sense to stick to the current system in use, but the ultimate decision depends on the local setup. In any case it is important to provide a good solution to ensure that earlier minted Persistent Identifiers remain available.

Cases where the only option is to use handles:

  • if you need a PID that points to data objects (say a zipfile) directly, rather than to a landing page
  • if you need direct, local, access to the handle server
  • if you require support for more experimental features of the handle system, eg links to a Data Type Registry