IGSN Identifiers: A Sustainable PID Strategy for Archaeological and Heritage Samples

Managing the growing number of material samples has nowadays posed a serious challenge within archaeology and cultural heritage research.   Samples are often assigned various local identifiers during their transfer, leading to ambiguous naming, loss of provenance, and fragmented data scattered across data sources.  Inconsistent local metadata descriptions further hinder the interoperability and linkage of samples with other research outputs.

In response to these issues, IGSN identifiers (IGSN IDs), regulated by the DataCite DOI, provide a means to permanently identify, cite, and locate physical samples. Nevertheless, the usability of IGSN has not yet been fully recognised by the NFDI4O communities.  To fill this gap, our TRAIL aims to evaluate the application of IGSN IDs and their metadata profiles to sample-based research within the consortium. Through the expertise and cooperation among Task Areas, we will design a community-driven IGSN strategy by:

1. reviewing, adopting and adapting existing IGSN metadata profiles through community effort.

2. performing crosswalks between generic and community-driven metadata schemas to enhance sample data interoperability.

3. validating IGSN metadata profiles via diverse use cases.

4. producing a Cookbook detailing best practices for launching an IGSN registration service in archaeology and cultural heritage.

By doing so, we lay the solid foundation for the further development of a sustainable IGSN service within the NFDI4O and beyond.