December 2022

Important:
SESAR is unable to accept new IGSN registrations until an accounting issue is resolved with the IGSN registration agency. The SESAR services will be read-only except for edits to existing samples until this issue is resolved. We anticipate resumption of normal service early January 2023.

Background:
We previously announced upcoming changes to the IGSN infrastructure as a consequence of the IGSN e.V. and DataCite partnership. Technical challenges associated with the transfer have been resolved, however some issues related to the change of account administration have not yet been resolved, and we do not expect these to be addressed until after the Christmas / New Years period.

Please note that starting January 2023, new samples registered with SESAR will use DataCite’s DOI infrastructure and so IGSNs will have a different structure as described below. The change will not impact IGSNs registered before 2023, and existing IGSNs will be progressively re-registered with DataCite over the coming months to guarantee ongoing resolution.

The main difference is that new IGSNs include a prefix to the current IGSN structure. The prefix is determined by DataCite and is of the form 10.XXXXX where XXXXX is a numeric value that varies between IGSN allocators. The prefix is necessary to ensure ongoing global uniqueness of IGSN identifiers and to facilitate resolution with the DataCite DOI infrastructure.

    • Current IGSN identifiers follow a simple pattern such as:

IGSN:IEAMN007P

    • New IGSN identifiers will follow the pattern:

IGSN:10.XXXXX/IEAMN007P

    • The recommended form for expressing the IGSN as a URL is:

https://doi.org/10.XXXXX/IEAMN007P

    • Although the URL forms: https://igsn.org/IEAMN007P and https://igsn.org/10.XXXXX/IEAMN007P will continue to provide the same functionality

You will receive the prefix with any new sample registrations. To help ensure ongoing global uniqueness, the prefix should be included when referencing any IGSNs.

The SESAR team is available to answer any questions you may have. For questions on SESAR² sample registration services, please contact us at info@geosamples.org.
For more information about the changes to the IGSN structure, please get in touch with DataCite at info@datacite.org  and support@datacite.org.

Happy Holidays from the SESAR Team!