Interagency Data Stewardship/Citations/provider guidelines
From Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP)
Versioning and DOIs
Here are some suggestions on how to handle different data set versions relative to a DOI. This is an initial suggestion based on work at NSIDC exploring a variety of different kinds of data sets or production patterns. Revise as you see fit.
- major version.minor version.[archive version]
- Individual stewards need to determine which are major vs. minor versions and describe the nature and file/record range of every version.
- Assign DOIs to major versions.
- Old DOIs should be maintained and point to some appropriate page that explains what happened to the old data if they were not archived.
- A new major version leads to the creation of a new collection-level metadata record that is distributed to appropriate registries. The older metadata record should remain with a pointer to the new version and with explanation of the status of the older version data.
- Major version (after the first version) should be captured in the data set title.
- Minor versions should be explained in documentation, ideally in file-level metadata.
- Minor versions should be exposed in the data set title and recommended citation.
- Applying UUIDs to individual files upon ingest aids in tracking minor versions and historical citations.
