Preservation & Access

DOIs

The assignment of persistent identifiers enables accurate data citation. The Library, like most repositories can assign a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to appropriate datasets deposited in the Institutional Repository (IR) WHOAS (Woods Hole Open Access Server).  Many publishers now require authors to deposit datasets associated with published articles in a repository.

The DOI would ideally be assigned before submission and be included in the published paper so readers can link directly to the data set, but DOIs are also being assigned to data sets related to articles after publication. WHOAS metadata records link the article to the data sets and the data sets to the article.

The Library has also collaborated with Elsevier to enable linking from Science Direct articles to related data sets (when available) in WHOAS.

Choosing a Repository

When a repository is not specified by the funding agency, or when that repository does not accept all applicable data, you may need to choose between other available repositories. A national repository is generally preferred, but a domain specific repository is also desirable. This increases the likelihood that your data will have greater relevance to those searching. Re3Data.org is a great resource to find potential repositories by subject and content type.

The WHOAS Repository

The WHOAS Repository is open to the entire Woods Hole scientific community. We work with researchers to deposit datasets in WHOAS that are not appropriate for national or domain specific data repositories.  These data sets currently include audio, video, text and jpg files. Our records are OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) compliant, which allows them to be harvested by search engines. We can embargo data where it is necessary and create new versions for changed content.

WHOAS is proud to be a CoreTrustSeal Certified Repository. CoreTrustSeal is an international, community based, non-governmental, and non-profit organization promoting sustainable and trustworthy data infrastructures. Read more about our WHOAS repository.