[Esip-preserve] Citations for Datasets

[Curt Tilmes]

On 04/19/2010 08:02 AM, Lynnes, Christopher S. (GSFC-6102) wrote:
> On Apr 19, 2010, at 7:27 AM, Curt Tilmes wrote:
>> Here is my strawman example:
>>
>> a) Smith, John. "Some Earth Science Data", FOO, DOI: 10.12345/FOO,
>>   Collection 2, http://purl.org/NET/MyOrg/data/FOO/2/2010-04-01T14:00:00.
>>
>> b) Smith, John. "Some Earth Science Data", FOO, DOI: 10.12345/FOO.
>>    Collection 2, DOI: 10.12345/FOO.2,
>>    http://purl.org/NET/MyOrg/data/FOO/2/2010-04-01T14:00:00.
>>
>> c) Smith, John. "Some Earth Science Data", FOO, Collection 2, DOI:
>>    10.12345/FOO.2, http://purl.org/NET/MyOrg/data/FOO/2/2010-04-01T14:00:00.

> My preference is (c) as I think it would be less confusing to humans
> (non-experts in the vagaries of science algorithms and production)
> trying to parse it.  This group may know that "Collection 2"
> signifies a different dataset version, but in fact some folks use
> the terminology "Version 2", "Edition 2", "Algorithm 2"
> etc. etc. etc.  So including two DOIs to identify the dataset will
> confuse readers: is it one dataset being used, or two?

>> d) Smith, John. "Some Earth Science Data", FOO, Collection 2,
>>    http://purl.org/NET/MyOrg/data/FOO/2/2010-04-01T14:00:00.

> This may be unambiguous, but again it is difficult for humans to
> understand, and more importantly, it makes citation searching quite
> difficult, and citation searching is one of the key goals of the
> entire unique identifier exercise at the dataset level.

I agree with your problems with (b), and agree that (d) makes
searching (and other things) more difficult.

I like (c) too.

In particular, I think the PURL is important for Open Datasets, but
for Closed Datasets, it isn't needed, since the DOI (if it
distinguishes versions) is sufficiently unambiguous.

I also think it will be easier to get people to cite the Dataset DOIs
than my PURLs (for the reasons you note).  I think tools at the
archives will be needed to help people construct reasonable (correct
and precise) citations.

Curt